A Bulk Bag or FIBC (Flexible Intermediate Bulk Container) is a large woven bag designed to carry bulk materials. Bulk Bags may contain up to 4000lbs of material depending on design. However, recent developments in bag liners and bag manufacturing have allowed the bulk bag to be used in other applications as well.
The growth in bulk bag usage has been fairly constant over the last 12 years. Approximately 11 to 13 million bags are used annually with an average annual growth rate of around 15% per year.
The growth is projected to continue due to the many advantages bulk bags provide over other containers like paper bags, fiber, plastic, and metal drums and rigid IBC's. These advantages include:
IMPROVED SAFETY: The manual material handling of bulk material in bags and drums and the discharging of material into process equipment can expose workers to lifting injuries. Bulk Bags require less manual movement since they require a mechanical means (fork truck, pallet jack, or hoist) to move the container and introduce it into the process.
COST SAVINGS: The labor cost per container is typically reduced when bulk bags are used. The lifting, opening, dumping, and disposal of forty, 50-lb paper bags is in most cases greater than positioning and opening one 2000-lb. bulk bag.
ECONOMICAL PACKAGING: As bag capacity increases, tare weight as a percentage of material weight decreases. This means more material can be shipped with less packaging for the same cost. Properly sized bulk bags can also be positioned and stacked more efficiently to heights exceeding that of smaller bags, maximizing shipping container usage and storage facility space.
The growth in bulk bag usage has been fairly constant over the last 12 years. Approximately 11 to 13 million bags are used annually with an average annual growth rate of around 15% per year.
The growth is projected to continue due to the many advantages bulk bags provide over other containers like paper bags, fiber, plastic, and metal drums and rigid IBC's. These advantages include:
IMPROVED SAFETY: The manual material handling of bulk material in bags and drums and the discharging of material into process equipment can expose workers to lifting injuries. Bulk Bags require less manual movement since they require a mechanical means (fork truck, pallet jack, or hoist) to move the container and introduce it into the process.
COST SAVINGS: The labor cost per container is typically reduced when bulk bags are used. The lifting, opening, dumping, and disposal of forty, 50-lb paper bags is in most cases greater than positioning and opening one 2000-lb. bulk bag.
ECONOMICAL PACKAGING: As bag capacity increases, tare weight as a percentage of material weight decreases. This means more material can be shipped with less packaging for the same cost. Properly sized bulk bags can also be positioned and stacked more efficiently to heights exceeding that of smaller bags, maximizing shipping container usage and storage facility space.