What do an electronics distributor and custom plastic company have in common? A lot if you are talking about Powell Electronics, Jamestown Plastics, and their approach to better serving the electronics connector market!

Powell Electronics specializes in high reliability, harsh environment connector design, manufacturing, and supply chain. They manage over 7 million SKUs, many of which are custom-made to their customers’ unique needs and specifications. Because of this customization, packaging of their products for safe transit can be challenging.

For 20 years Ernie Schilling, Jr., CEO of Powell Electronics, had been searching for a flexible packaging solution that would work for his business. He wanted to move away from the time-consuming process his team was using that involved manipulating standard packaging and cutting packages down to protect the highly sensitive products that Powell was shipping. Enter Jamestown Plastics!

A couple of years ago Schilling attended the SHOT Show where he came across Clamtainer®, a patented packaging solution from Jamestown Plastics that turns the cursed clamshell into a reusable container. As the two companies started talking, they soon realized that Clamtainer could be tremendous help for Powell Electronics.

Clamtainer provides a more efficient packing process, requiring no buttons, no welding, no heat sealing, and no equipment to buy or maintain. Clamtainer also stays securely closed but can be easily opened with one hand. Even better…it can be reused to store the original item that came inside of it or other items that fit. Clamtainer is also recyclable once it reaches the end of its useful life.

Powell Electronics introduced Clamtainer to its fulfillment processes with minimal changes to its procedures. Since starting with Clamtainer, Powell has seen tremendous improvements and savings:

• The “decision tree” for determining packaging is much easier for the packing team, providing a 500-fold increase in packing efficiency.
• By using clear Clamtainers, the inspection department can inspect the product before shipping without having to open the container.
• Total packaging costs (labor and materials) have decreased 90%.
• With packaging that better fits and protects its products during transit, returns have decreased 75%

Together, Powell Electronics and Jamestown Plastics are helping to ensure these highly sensitive (and in many cases urgently needed) products are protected during transit and while being stored, all while packaging the products much more efficiently!

Contact Jamestown Plastics today to discuss how Clamtainer can be used within your business!

Is sustainability important to a company’s success? It has been reported that up to 90% of business executives believe sustainability should be part of their long-term strategy. While some believe that plastic needs to be eliminated to reach their sustainability goals, consumer brands can implement smart and thoughtful plastic innovation that helps both their businesses and the environment.

Jamestown Plastics recently partnered with one of our customers to create a “closed loop recycling” program. We produce plastic trays for this customer to use when working with their consumers. The trays are durable and can be reused multiple times. Once they are no longer usable, the plastic trays do not end up in the landfill and waste stream. Rather, they are sent back to Jamestown Plastics where they are ground into plastic flakes and recycled by our plastic extruders, preparing them to be turned into new plastic to make more trays.

“Reduce, reuse, and recycle” are important concepts that can be built into our customers’ programs. These programs provide sustainable measures that benefit their companies, their customers, and our planet. Cost savings is another potential benefit that companies can realize by displacing the use of virgin material with recycled content material.

Contact us to discuss how your programs can become more sustainable!

The automotive styling landscape is everchanging, with manufacturers continuously introducing new design features on their various models. Keeping up with these constant changes can be difficult. Jamestown Plastics has not just met this challenge, but we have proven to be a leader in styling/restyling innovation and technology.  We take on even the most difficult projects for badging, moldings, body panel appliques, interior, or under-hood components and use our expertise to successfully achieve our customers’ goals. 

Whether our parts are installed at the factory, port, or dealership, the visual effect of these changes to the vehicle is dramatic. Just as changing wheels can enhance a vehicle’s look, our exterior trim products will completely change the appearance of the vehicle; a change that has become popular for those who don’t want to settle for the same old thing.   

Jamestown Plastics easily met customer needs with a product line that had never previously been introduced to the industry. Our team of knowledgeable and creative engineers and craftsmen used cutting edge technology and many years of hands-on skill to produce not only an automotive product, but a full, high volume production line that is able to keep up with the OE’s aggressive planning for years to come. 

A customer contacted us with an urgent request to develop a package for one of their most expensive and delicate products. The product needed to be protected during the manufacturing and assembly processes all the way through shipping to distribution centers. It also needed to deliver finished product to their end customers.

Our Sales and Design Engineering teams worked to gather all the needed information to develop the best packaging solution. The customer’s current approach was using corrugated cells and boxes, which did not provide the best protection and added considerable labor to assemble. The original packaging also lacked the finished presentation that the customer desired to showcase the valuable product inside.

We presented various design options and materials to our customer to help solve this challenge. They chose Clamtainer as the perfect solution to meet their needs throughout the process and also provided a very nice product presentation. In addition, we created an insert with shock dampening features to help capture and position the product, protecting the most critical features.

This remarkable packaging solution met our customer expectations, while also providing them with significant cost savings.

As they were installing a new automation line, Tyco Electronics realized that the line would not function properly to meet its automation goals without tight tolerance part locating trays. With a tight deadline, creating injection molding tooling and making parts was not an option. However, manufacturing a thermoformed tray that met or exceeded molded tolerances would be a challenge. Thus, they turned to Jamestown Plastics to solve the problem!

We needed to design a high-tolerance process tray for an automation assembly cell. This equipment required both registration/positioning features on the bottom of the tray and position-critical, tight tolerance cavity features on the top of the tray. At the beginning and end of the line, the trays needed to stack consistently and be robotically picked.

To fully understand the requirements, our team visited the plant with Tyco’s engineering group to review the equipment. The solution we developed was to combine two different trays as an assembly. The base tray was designed for stacking and locating the tray on the conveyor system, while the second tray would then provide internal alignment for the robotic pick/place of the parts into the process tray. 

During the manufacturing of the two trays, it was required to CNC machine each tray before assembling them as a tight tolerance finished product. We custom built an in-house assembly fixture to locate the inner tray to the outer tray. The final operation was finish machining the assembled units to hold the required tolerances. Not only was the side-to-side positioning critical, but the height was also critical to the function of the equipment. Jamestown Plastics very quickly met the requirements of this overlooked, key item to the automated system. Tyco was extremely happy and commended us for our timely and effective solution to keep this very expensive line operational.

Clamtainer is a game changer in the field of transparent “clamshell” packaging and a vast improvement over flimsy traditional methodologies. Retailers and consumers alike are buzzing about the seemingly endless list of uses for this engineering marvel — sturdy, reusable plastic packaging with a patented locking feature that allows for easy opening and closing and stays sealed under stress.

“It’s the first thermoform package that you can open and close with just one hand,” explains Jay Baker, company president. “There is an endless list of applications for the Click it Clam. Customers that we’ve had for many years are adopting it for all different things, and then we have a variety of brand-new customers coming onboard. The sky’s the limit.”

Customers have come to expect the latest and greatest in thermoforming and packaging from Jamestown Plastics, and the Clamtainer is no exception. This product raises the bar by offering what Baker calls “inherent superiority” over existing clamshell packaging — it’s durable, more secure and reclosable, with tamper-evident features that enhance its appeal to the end user.

There are myriad applications for consumers, retailers, wholesalers and industrial customers, including clear clamshells for eyeglasses, golf tees, automotive, fresh fruits and vegetables, cosmetics, hobby supplies, storage of hardware fasteners, fishing lures and ammunition.
The key is a patented lock-and-release mechanism that utilizes sheer strength instead of friction for functionality.

Just think:

• Simply click it open or close it with one hand.
• No more cutting or tearing into the package.
• A unique look that sets your product apart from the competition.
• Ultra-sturdy and protective.

“If you drop it, it won’t burst open on you,” Baker says. “The point is, we found that there’s a much better way to do packaging. This is a game changer.”

Ingenuity is the name of the game at Jamestown Plastics, a custom manufacturer of thermoformed products and a recognized leader in the global packaging industry. Established in 1957, its humble roots have given way to a customer base that ranges from multi-national conglomerates all the way down to mom-and-pop stores. In 1986, the company outgrew its space in Jamestown and moved to a 100,000-square-foot plant in Brocton, N.Y. A second location is in Brownsville, Texas.

Through decades of growth and expansion, however, the founding principles have endured: Provide superior customer service and commit to getting the job done right.

“We’ve been doing packaging for almost 60 years,” says Baker, who as a teenager started working at the business owned by his father, James. “What we have here is a collection of extremely dedicated and talented people. We call it the Jamestown Plastics family and we mean it; we don’t say that lightly. We have some amazing people here in Brocton and in Texas and we treat them like family.”

“Home-grown employees” who joined the company and have spent years learning the ins and outs of packaging are the backbone of the business, adds Ray Navarro, plant manager.

“A key point about this company is that one-third of our workforce has been here 20-plus years. You don’t find that in many companies,” he points out.

Baker is proud of the tight-knit culture at Jamestown Plastics, which takes great pride in a can-do attitude and commitment to quality.

“I’m more than proud. It’s who we are,” he says. “We are a mission-focused company. It’s not just an inspirational phrase that you put on a wall and just sort of chuckle about. For us, it really means something.”

Now, he predicts the Click it Clam will be an exciting “next generation” in the container and packaging industry. It’s the ultimate solution to what the market wants and needs, and goes hand in hand with environmentalists’ advocacy of the three R’s — Reduce, Reuse and Recyle.

As Navarro says, “This is the only thermoformed package that hits a home run on all three of those.”

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Think of the lifespan of your plastic product
In order to be as environmentally friendly as possible, it is important to think of the lifespan of the items you are producing. This is so everyone, including Mother Nature, can get as much out of the products as possible. Think of it this way, if you produce plastic straws, they have a consumer lifespan of about an hour, but they will last for over 100 years in the landfill. For the best output, try and get the lifespan for both consumer and environmental factors to be as close as possible, such as five years with the consumer and 10 years to break down and erode.

Make sure your facility is eco-friendly as well
You are without a doubt dealing with a lot of plastic supplies, but that doesn’t mean you necessarily have to utilize plastic in everything you do! Make sure to invest in reusable supplies and incorporate recyclable packaging in whatever ways you can.

Develop and promote a unique retail packaging product
Consider this — the 2016 West Rock Consumer Insights Study revealed that 66% of consumers have tried a new product because the packaging caught their eye. Plus, if you are able to create something new that is different than anything in the industry, your clientele will hold onto it longer! For example, consider our reusable clamshells. Our thermoformed clamshells come in plenty of customizable packaging solutions/options for anything under the rainbow — from bullets to sunglasses and camping supplies.

Clamtainer®s reusable clamshell packaging is the only one of its kind in the plastic industry and provides a great green alternative to single-use packaging products. If you are interested in learning more about our specific type of clamshell and how it stands out among the crowd, please contact us today.

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Cannabis-infused chocolate bars have become quite popular. But for the manufacturer, packaging the bars was taking more time than it took consumers to consume them. The manufacturer of these chocolate bars would place the bars into a plastic tray, then slide the tray into a chipboard sleeve fitted with locking tabs that had to be individually secured. This made the packaging child-resistant. It also made the packaging cumbersome and required significant pack-out time which was quite costly. That’s why they reached out to Jamestown Plastics. 

We recommended a child-resistant Clamtainer which, although comparably priced, dramatically reduced the pack-out time by 5X to 6X, resulting in considerable cost savings. 

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A major auto manufacturer had a shipment of finished vehicles on the boat headed to the US. But market studies showed they had a problem. It seemed that their console color scheme was not going to work in the US. Their solution was to make a part that would overlay the undesirable white console with a color matched gloss black cover. They needed these parts quickly and the parts needed to install easily. Most importantly, given the extreme color contrast and the fact that the cover also had to fit over switches/controls, the trimming had to be very precise!

Needing the right partner, they called Jamestown Plastics! We built a tool, a process and a very precise custom trimming system and then produced the parts to cover them (both the console and the manufacturer) for a year’s worth of vehicles while they changed over in their factory. What took them a year to eventually accomplish, we did in just 12 weeks! And, the cars sold without a problem.

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TRICO Products Corporation is a major manufacturer of windshield wipers. As part of their packaging pack-out process, TRICO employees would wrap every pair of wipers in kraft paper and place the wrapped wipers into cartons. The problem with wrapping wipers is that it takes too much time and was a problem for the auto manufacturers using the wipers, both of which wipes out profits. TRICO initially looked at foam packing inserts as a solution but, while they reduced pack-out time, the inserts took up too much space.

Enter Jamestown Plastics. We designed custom dunnage trays that eliminated the paper overwrap, enhanced product protection, and dramatically reduced labor costs for both TRICO and their customers.

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