Shipping Supplies / Frequently Purchased Supplies
Frequently Purchased Shipping & Packing Supplies
The strapping, corrugated, film, paper and labels our customers reorder most — with the specifications you need to pick the right one, and live pricing in our online store. Wholesale quantities shipped nationwide from Salt Lake City.
28
Best-selling items
5
Product groups
56,000+
Products in our store
1–2 days
Typical Intermountain delivery
The Supplies That Move Every Shipment
Packaging is the last thing that touches your product and the first thing your customer sees. When a strap loses tension in a trailer, a 200# carton is asked to carry 90 lb, or a carrier label fades before the third scan, the cost never shows up as a packaging problem — it shows up as damage claims, redelivery fees and returns.
Material Handling USA has supplied packaging and material handling products from Salt Lake City since 1997. This page collects the items our shipping customers reorder most: strapping and load securement, corrugated mailers and bulk containers, poly bags, sheeting and pallet covers, labels, tags and envelopes, and protective papers. Every group here links straight into the matching category in our e-commerce store, where sizes, pack quantities and current pricing are live.
If you are standardizing a packing line rather than buying one case, skip the store and talk to us. We will build a spec list, quote it at volume, and set up a release schedule so the bench never runs out mid-shift.
Strapping & Load Securement
Strapping holds a unit load together from the plant floor to the receiving dock. The decision comes down to how much tension the load must retain, how much the load settles, and whether the edges will cut a plastic strap.
“Do Not Double Stack” Edge ProtectorsPrinted 2″ × 2″ × 36″ angleboard in a .160 wall. Spreads strap tension across the carton edge and puts a red stacking warning where a forklift driver will actually read it.
Polyester Strapping – Smooth5/8″ × 4,200′ smooth polyester on a 16″ × 6″ machine core. The high-retained-tension choice for rigid, non-compressible palletized loads and the usual replacement for steel.
Open / Snap-On Metal Strapping Seals1/2″ open metal seals, 1,000 per case, for hand-applied poly and polyester strapping. Snap-on seals crimp fast without threading the strap back through a buckle.
Hand Grade Polypropylene Strapping – Embossed1/2″ × .017 × 9,000′ black embossed polypropylene on a 16″ × 6″ core. Economical bundling and light-to-medium palletizing; the embossed surface improves tensioner grip.
Regular Duty Steel Strapping1/2″ × .015 gauge × 3,930′ regular-duty steel, 100 lb coils. Highest break strength and almost no elongation — specified for coils, castings, bricks and sharp-edged loads.Strapping Material Comparison
| Material | Break strength | Elongation | Tension retention | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Polypropylene (PP) | Good | High — roughly 18–34% | Poor | Bundling, light and medium palletizing, print and mail |
| Polyester (PET) | Very good | Low — roughly 10–12% | Very good | Rigid, heavy, non-compressible pallet loads; steel replacement |
| Steel | Excellent | Very low — about 1% | Good | Coils, castings, brick, lumber, hot or sharp-edged loads |
Seals, buckles and tools matter as much as the strap
A strap is only as strong as its joint. Open snap-on metal seals crimp fast on hand-applied poly and polyester; heavier steel strapping needs matched seals and a proper crimper. Under-crimped seals are the most common cause of a strap that “broke” in transit — the joint slipped, the strap did not fail.
Standardizing strapping across a plant?
Send us the load — weight, dimensions, whether it settles, and how far it travels — and we will specify the material, width, gauge, seal and tool together, then quote it at volume.
Boxes, Mailers & Cartons
From a die-cut mailer holding a single part to a triple-wall Gaylord holding a thousand pounds of bulk material, the container is where most packaging cost and most damage risk live.
White Corrugated Mailers3″ × 2″ × 2″ and up, 50 per bundle. One-piece die-cut mailers fold and lock without tape guns or void fill for small parts and e-commerce orders.
Kraft Corrugated Mailers4″ × 3″ × 2″ and up, 50 per bundle. The unbleached version of the same die-cut mailer — lower cost and a natural finish that takes printing well.
Deluxe White Literature Mailers10-1/4″ × 8-1/4″ × 4″ and up, 50 per bundle. Flat, wide footprint for catalogs, binders, apparel and documents that must not bend in transit.
Kraft Reverse Tuck Folding Cartons1-1/2″ × 1-1/2″ × 4″ and up, 1,000 per case. Lightweight chipboard retail cartons that ship flat and assemble by hand with no tape.
White Reverse Tuck Folding Cartons1-1/2″ × 1-1/2″ × 2-1/4″ and up, 1,000 per case. The white clay-coated version for retail shelf presentation and private-label kitting.
Triple Wall Gaylord Bottoms36″ × 36″ × 36″, 5 per bundle. Triple-wall bulk containers for heavy scrap, resin, castings and returnable bulk programs where a double wall crushes.
Double Wall Gaylord Bottoms36″ × 36″ × 36″, 5 per bundle. The everyday bulk box for lighter, high-volume material — roughly half the cost of triple wall.
Single Wall Corrugated Sheets & Pads15″ × 15″ and up, 50 per bundle. Layer pads, tier sheets and box bottoms that stop product-to-product contact and add stacking strength inside a bulk container.Corrugated Strength Ratings
Every corrugated box carries a box maker’s certificate with a Mullen (bursting) rating, an Edge Crush Test (ECT) rating, or both. Mullen measures how much pressure the wall resists before it punctures; ECT measures how much load the edge carries before it crushes, which is what determines stacking strength. The industry treats 32 ECT as the alternative to 200# Mullen because their suggested load limits are similar — not because the boards are equivalent.
| Board | Mullen rating | ECT rating | Suggested load per box | Where it fits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard single wall | 200# Mullen | 32 ECT | About 65 lb | Most e-commerce and parcel shipments |
| Heavy duty single wall | 275# Mullen | 44 ECT | About 95 lb | Dense product, longer supply chains, repeat handling |
| Heavy duty double wall | 275# Mullen | 48 ECT | Heavier than 44 ECT single wall | Stacked freight, machined parts, export |
| Triple wall | Not commonly rated by Mullen | Highest | Bulk container loads | Gaylords, bulk scrap, heavy palletized bulk |
Buy to the failure mode you actually see
If your damage is punctures and corner tears from rough handling, buy Mullen. If your damage is crushed cartons at the bottom of a stack or a collapsed pallet column, buy ECT — and add corrugated layer pads or angleboard before you jump to a heavier board, because they are usually cheaper per shipment.
Poly Bags, Sheeting & Pallet Covers
Film is the cheapest protection you can buy against the three things that ruin stored goods: dust, moisture and handling. Gauge is measured in mils — thousandths of an inch — and it is the only spec that really changes the price.
Clear Top Sheeting60″ × 60″, 1.25 mil, 250 sheets per case. Dropped over a pallet before stretch wrapping to keep dust, sprinkler water and overspray off the top layer.
Clear Pallet Covers36″ × 27″ × 65″, 1 mil, 100 per case. Full-pallet bags for outdoor staging, cold storage, long-term warehousing and dusty plant environments.
4 Mil Poly Tubing2″ × 1,075′ and up. Cut-to-length tubing lets one roll bag long, odd or variable-length parts instead of stocking a dozen bag sizes.
Flat Suffocation Warning Poly Bags9″ × 12″, 1 mil, 100 per pack. Pre-printed English, Spanish and French warnings for consumer-bound bags — the compliant choice for apparel and retail packing.
Reclosable Poly Bags2 mil reclosable bags, 1,000 per case, from 1″ × 1″ up. Kitting, hardware packs, service parts and anything that has to be opened and resealed at the point of use.
Choosing a Film Gauge
Most packing benches over-buy gauge on small bags and under-buy it on pallet-level film. A 2 mil reclosable bag is plenty for hardware and kitted parts; a pallet that will sit in an unheated warehouse for a season wants a real cover, not a top sheet.
Cut-to-length poly tubing solves a different problem: instead of stocking a dozen bag lengths for long or variable parts, you cut and seal one roll to fit. And any bag that reaches a consumer should be printed suffocation-warning stock — New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Virginia and California all regulate warnings on thin plastic bags above a specified size.
| Gauge | Character | Typical application |
|---|---|---|
| 1 mil | Light, low-cost protection | Pallet covers, dust covers, retail bagging |
| 1.25 mil | Slightly tougher than 1 mil | Top sheeting over palletized cartons |
| 2 mil | General purpose | Reclosable bags, parts bags, kitting |
| 4 mil | Puncture resistant | Poly tubing for sharp or heavy parts, long-term storage |
| 6 mil and heavier | Heavy duty | Construction, abrasive material, severe handling |
Labels, Tags & Packing List Envelopes
Identification is what makes a shipment trackable. A label that will not scan costs more than every other packaging component on the carton put together, because it puts a person in the loop.
Manila Shipping Tags – Pre-Wired10 pt., 13 pt. and 15 pt. jumbo stock, 1,000 per case. Reinforced eyelet and factory-attached wire for freight, WIP routing and equipment tagging where an adhesive label will not hold.
Kraft Block Out Labels8″ × 10″, 250 per roll. Opaque kraft face stock that hides old barcodes and addresses on reused cartons so scanners read only the current label.
“Fragile – Handle With Care” Labels1-1/2″ × 4″ and larger. High-contrast handling labels for glass, electronics, instruments and anything a carrier should not stack or drop.
White Rectangle Laser Labels1-3/4″ × 1/2″ and up, 80 labels per sheet, 100 sheets per box. Sheet-fed labels for office laser printers — bin locations, asset tags and small-run addressing.
White Thermal Transfer Labels4″ × 2″, 3,000 per roll, wound out. Printed with a ribbon for a scannable image that survives heat, sunlight and abrasion — use for asset and long-life labeling.
Direct Thermal Labels4″ × 6-1/2″, 900 per roll. No ribbon to buy or change — the lowest-cost way to print carrier labels, pick tickets and return labels at volume.
Orange “Packing List Enclosed” Envelopes4-1/2″ × 5-1/2″ and up, 1,000 per case. Panel-face envelopes keep the packing list readable, dry and outside the carton where receiving expects it.Label Technology Comparison
| Type | Printer / ribbon | Expected image life | Environmental resistance | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct thermal | None | Roughly six months in normal conditions | Fades with heat, sunlight and abrasion | Carrier labels, pick tickets, return labels |
| Thermal transfer | Ribbon required | Years, depending on ribbon and face stock | Resists heat, light and scuffing | Asset tags, rack labels, long-life product labels |
| Laser sheet labels | Office laser printer | Long — toner-fused image | Good indoors | Small runs, bin locations, office addressing |
| Pre-printed handling labels | None | Long | High-contrast printed ink | “Fragile,” “This Side Up,” “Do Not Stack” |
- Match core diameter, maximum roll outside diameter and wind direction to your printer
- Run direct thermal for carrier labels and pick tickets — no ribbon to manage
- Run thermal transfer for rack labels, asset tags and anything stored outdoors
- Use kraft block out labels on reused cartons so scanners read only the current label
- Put handling labels (“Fragile,” “This Side Up”) on two adjacent faces, not one
- Keep the packing list outside the carton in a panel-face envelope
Need help matching labels to your printers?
Send us the printer models and the label sizes you run today. We will confirm core size, roll diameter and wind, then quote the annual volume — including ribbons where thermal transfer is the right call.
Protective Papers & Wraps
Paper is the most flexible material on the bench. The same roll does void fill, wrapping, interleaving and surface protection, it needs no machine, and it goes out in the customer’s curbside recycling.
Unbleached Butcher Paper Rolls24″ × 1,000′ and up. Natural kraft butcher paper for wrapping, interleaving and general bench use where a printed or coated sheet is not needed.
Bleached Butcher Paper Rolls36″ × 1,000′ and up. The white version — cleaner presentation for finished goods, food-adjacent packing and anything that shows marks.
Kraft Paper Rolls12″ × 1,200′ in 30 lb. basis weight and up. The workhorse void fill and wrapping paper — feed it from a dispenser and it replaces most cushioning film.Basis weight is the spec to watch: 30 lb. kraft is the general-purpose grade, lighter stock crumples for pure void fill, and heavier stock protects finished surfaces. Run it from a bench dispenser rather than a loose roll — a dispenser typically cuts paper consumption noticeably because packers stop over-pulling.
Tape, Stretch Wrap & Shrink Film
Carton sealing and unit-load wrapping are the two highest-volume consumables in almost every shipping department, so small specification changes have outsized effects.
On tape, the variables are adhesive type (hot melt for speed and cold-temperature grab, acrylic for long-term aging and outdoor exposure), thickness in mils, and width. A 2″ hot melt carton-sealing tape in a proper pistol-grip dispenser handles most single-wall cartons with a single center strip plus tabs; heavier cartons want the H-taped pattern rather than a heavier tape.
On stretch wrap, hand film and machine film are not interchangeable — machine film is engineered to pre-stretch, and running it by hand wastes both film and labor. If you are wrapping more than roughly 15 to 20 pallets a shift by hand, a semi-automatic turntable wrapper usually pays for itself in film savings and shoulder injuries avoided. Printed and colored films are available where you need to segregate loads visually.
Shop Online at MaterialHandling-USA.com
Tape, stretch wrap and shrink film are stocked with live pricing in our online store, along with dispensers and the rest of the shipping room:
Packing Supplies vs. Shipping Supplies
The two terms get used interchangeably, but they describe different jobs, and separating them makes a supply list much easier to build.
Packing supplies work inside the box to protect the item itself — kraft paper for void fill, corrugated pads and layer sheets, poly bags against moisture, cushioning around fragile faces. Their job is to cushion, brace and wrap so the product never moves and never touches another product.
Shipping supplies work on the outside of the shipment — the corrugated mailer or carton, the strapping and edge protectors that hold a pallet together, the stretch film, and the labels and packing list envelope that carry the information. Their job is containment, securement and identification.
Together they form one system, and most damage happens when a company buys well on one side and poorly on the other — a heavy-duty carton with nothing inside it to stop the product from shifting fails just as reliably as a cheap carton. For a longer treatment, read the difference between packaging supplies and shipping supplies.
Why Supply Quality Pays For Itself
Fewer Damage ClaimsCorrectly rated corrugated, real cushioning and properly tensioned strapping cut in-transit damage, and every avoided claim saves the product, the freight, the replacement freight and the customer.
No Stockouts at the BenchStandard sizes, case quantities and a release schedule mean packers never stop to hunt for a box. Consolidating suppliers also collapses your PO and receiving workload.
A Package That Represents YouA square carton, a clean label and a legible packing list are the only physical contact most e-commerce customers have with your brand. Right-sized packaging also cuts dimensional-weight freight charges.
Lower Total CostBuying by the case at wholesale pricing, right-sizing cartons, and replacing steel with polyester where the load allows all reduce spend without reducing protection.Let us build your standard supply list
Send us what you ship, how you ship it, and what fails today. We will put together a specification list with case quantities and volume pricing, and set delivery on a schedule that matches your run rate.
Shipping & Packing Supply FAQs
Do you sell shipping and packing supplies at wholesale pricing?
What is the difference between steel, polyester and polypropylene strapping?
How do I know which box strength I need?
Are your thermal labels compatible with our printers?
Should I use direct thermal or thermal transfer labels?
Why do I need edge protectors if I am already strapping the pallet?
Which poly bags legally need a suffocation warning?
Can we consolidate supplies and equipment on one purchase order?
Related Products & Resources
Wholesale Shipping SuppliesThe full wholesale program — corrugated, film, tape, strapping and labels at volume pricing with scheduled delivery.
Moving BoxesWardrobe, double-wall, dish-pack and specialty cartons for relocations, plant moves and office churn.
Packaging vs. Shipping SuppliesA longer guide to which materials protect the product and which contain, secure and identify the shipment.
Conveyor SystemsRoller, belt and gravity conveyor to move cartons through pack-out instead of carrying them.Ready to Stock Up?
Buy single cases online with live pricing, or send us your list for wholesale quantities. Call (800) 326-4403 and we will help you specify the strapping, board grade, film gauge and labels before you commit to a pallet of the wrong thing.