Bubble pack. History of invention and production

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HISTORY OF TECHNOLOGY, TECHNOLOGY, OBJECTS AROUND US
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Bubble pack. History of invention and production

The history of technology, technology, objects around us

Directory / The history of technology, technology, objects around us

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Bubble wrap is a flexible, transparent plastic material (polyethylene) whose surface is evenly covered with small air-filled protrusions. Used to pack fragile items. It was invented by two engineers: Alfred Fielding and Mark Chavanne. Initially, bubble wrap was conceived as a new wallpaper material that would be easy and convenient to clean.

bubble wrap

In 1957 in the USA, two young men, Alfred Fielding and Mark Chavan, decided, in full accordance with the spirit of private enterprise, to invent something suitable for further production and sale. As usual, the garage became the laboratory, and the first invention was wallpaper made from two polyethylene bathroom curtains glued together. The air bubbles caught between the layers of polyethylene gave the wallpaper a unique style (this was the dawn of the beatnik era, and various wall coverings such as bamboo were in vogue). However, the wallpaper did not arouse interest among potential consumers. Unsuccessful inventors suggested using the resulting film to cover greenhouses, but despite the good thermal insulation properties of the material, this idea did not win commercial success.

However, Fielding and Shavan did not back down, coming up with new possibilities for their product. One of their proposals was the use of multilayer film as a packaging material for fragile goods - the air "caught" between the layers of polyethylene absorbs shocks well. In 1960, they founded the company Sealed Air ("Sealed Air") and launched a new material called Bubble Wrap ("Bubble Wrap").

Sales of the new material were so-so, until a couple of years later, the company's sales employee Frederick Bowers discovered a gold mine. He demonstrated to IBM how "trapped bubbles" can be used to protect the fragile mechanisms of one of the first mass-market business computers, the recently launched Model 1401, during shipping.

The new material turned out to be better and more convenient than old newspapers (a popular packaging method at the time) and foam pellets that appeared in the 1970s. The high protective qualities of Bubble Wrap have been confirmed by repeated tests in independent laboratories, where they simulated drops on concrete, vibration during transportation in trucks and wagons, and tested the material in vacuum chambers to see how it behaves when transported by aircraft.

In addition, Bubble Wrap has become one of the cult stress relievers: the methodical "bursting" of bubbles turned out to be an excellent mechanical sedative, a kind of "kinesthetic drug".

However, Bubble Wrap has one serious drawback: multilayer polyethylene with ready-made bubbles takes up a lot of space during transportation - you literally have to transport air. Therefore, the dream of Alfred Fielding, who led the company until 1987, all this time remained the creation of a packaging material that could be delivered to the packaging site "deflated" and "inflated" immediately before use. In the 2000s, his dream came true - the company's engineers developed NewAir IB, a material that is very compact when deflated. The bubbles between its layers are interconnected, and therefore it is easily inflated at the place of use.

The new material also has only one (but very serious) drawback: it cannot be used as a sedative.

Author: S.Apresov

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