How to Ship Electronics

Electronics contain thousands of tiny, fragile parts. These parts and electronics cases are often made of hard plastic that can easily dent or break from impact. It is important to exercise the utmost care when packing electronics for shipping both because they are delicate and because electronics often require extra packing steps to be taken due to the nature of their contents. Use these steps to ship electronics safely.

Steps

1Separate the equipment into as many pieces as possible.For packing a printer, for example, you would want to separate the paper tray from the main body and remove any cords.

2Place small components of the device into their own plastic bags and label them.For cords, bundle them and use twist ties to keep them together. Unbundled cords can take up a lot of space.

3Wrap large pieces of equipment in 2 layers of bubble wrap. Tape the bubble wrap to itself with heavy duty tape.

4Fill a large cardboard shipping box halfway with packing peanuts.

5Put the largest piece of equipment into the box, covering about a third of the device with the packing peanuts.

6Place the various wrapped components inside the box so they do not touch each other.

7Fill the rest of the box with packing peanuts.

8Close the top of the box and shake it gently. If there is movement inside, open the box and reposition the devices, adding more packing peanuts as needed.

9Shut the box and tape it both vertically and horizontally.

10Obtain another large cardboard shipping box, about 1 to 2 inches (2.54 to 5.08 cm) larger than the original box.

11Pour a thin layer of packing peanuts into the new box.

12Place the first package into the second box.

13Fill the remaining space with packing peanuts.

14Check again for movement and repackage as needed.

15Close the box and tape the top flaps shut using at least 6 pieces of heavy duty tape. If the seal breaks, packing peanuts will escape and destroy your secure package.