A What?

Heat Shrink Steam tunnels, as we all know, are solid insulated structures made of stainless steel and typically cost about $30m to start, plus significant installation cost for steam supply.

Using a wooden steam tunnel is like driving a plywood car to work.

But suppose your new product is packed in a large, unusually shaped, container that won’t fit through anyone’s standard tunnel?

You really need to be sure of what it will look like, before you commit to purchasing a significant quantity of expensive labels printed with the pre-distorted graphics that look correct when shrunk on the container.

The needed pre-distortion can be estimated based on experience, and tested using heat guns, but these are still only estimates and as the saying goes, “may not represent ultimate reality”.

But If the pre-distortion is not just right, buyers may not be able to read the usage instructions, and the label and graphics may be so distorted that the end product just doesn’t have that quality look that defines the brand, and justifies the price. Particularly true with containers of this large a size.

Suppose also that this is a new product concept and the container is unusual enough, that it perhaps may not be accepted by the consumer. Better not to run large quantities right off the bat.

What contract packager will be willing to buy and install an expensive oversize tunnel that they won’t need for much else, for a small, pilot product run? Hard to find any (Unless, of course, you buy the tunnel).

These were the thorny issues faced by a pet products company. So they approached MSI for help getting their product to market.

Truly thinking out of the box (no pun intended) MSI spent about $25 (no zeroes missing) on materials from the lumber yard and built a fiberglass lined, wooden box alongside one of their existing steam tunnels to temporarily use the steam supply and controls from that tunnel. With a spare conveyor running thru it, this allowed some extensive realistic testing to truly get the label pre-distortion right. The total cost to the customer for label design and verification testing was under $1300.

And they now have a way to have small production runs done economically.

This is just another in a long list of projects demonstrating the creative expertise that MSI has used to help their customers.