ISPM15 heat-treated export crates, designed around your product and the route it is taking. Made in the UK, delivered to your door, your freight forwarder or the port.
APS Packaging manufactures export crates at our 300,000 sq ft site in Bideford, Devon, and has done since 2000. An export crate has a harder life than a crate crossing the yard: it is lifted by forklift and crane, stacked in a container, tipped in a hold, left on a quayside in the rain and opened by someone who has never seen the product. We design each one for that journey, heat treat it in our own kilns so it clears plant-health inspection under ISPM 15, and deliver it ready to pack.
Four things separate a proper export crate from a wooden box. We build all four in as standard.
Every solid-timber component is heat treated in our on-site drying kilns and the finished crate carries our FC0542 mark. Without it, wood packaging is refused or destroyed at the border in the EU, the USA, China, Australia and over 180 other countries.
Bearers stand on edge to give deep, clear fork pockets, and the walls sit on the bearer lip so the load path runs into the base, not through the floor overhang. Heavy crates get lifting points and marked centres of gravity.
Barrier bags, VCI film for bare metal, desiccant and vapour-permeable liners keep condensation off the product through a six-week sea passage or a humid transit shed.
The product is fixed inside the crate, never left to slide. Timber blocking, bolt-down cradles, foam and corner protection are cut to the item and supplied with the crate, or fitted here by our packing team.
Most export crates we build are framed OSB: 22 x 100 mm timber picture frames clad with 11 mm OSB on a two-way entry base, with a battened lid. The frame sits on the outside so the inside faces are flat and the internal dimensions are exactly what you asked for. It is strong, economical and makes efficient use of the tree.
Where the load is heavy, awkward or high value we move up to plywood-clad crates for impact and water resistance, or fully close-boarded timber crates with full-drop uprights and a two-layer lid for machinery and plant. Long items, up to 8 m for the energy sector, are built as rigid timber cases; small automotive and instrument parts go in cases under half a metre. Every crate is machined on CNC and optimising saws, so the tenth crate is identical to the first.
Our crates leave the UK for defence, aerospace, marine, energy, pumps and valves, machinery and exhibition work. The route decides the crate.
Close-boarded timber crates with bolt-down bases for lathes, pumps, gearboxes and generators, with lifting points and CoG marked.
Framed OSB crates sized to stack in a container, with barrier bags and desiccant for a long passage. Moisture control matters more than anything else at sea.
Lighter plywood and slatted builds that keep volumetric weight down without giving up rigidity, sized to the ULD pallet.
Knock-down crates with captive fixings and hinged lids, so the crate comes home flat and goes out again.
If the crate contains any solid wood, yes. ISPM 15 applies to solid-wood packaging entering almost every country, including the whole of the EU since the UK left. Engineered boards such as OSB and plywood are exempt, but the timber frame and base of the crate are not, so the whole crate is treated and stamped. We do this on site.
Yes. Tell us whether the shipment is going in a 20 ft or 40 ft box, or on an air-freight pallet, and we design the external size to load and stack cleanly with no wasted space and no forced re-packing at the port.
Yes. We supply foam, blocking, cradles, VCI film, barrier bags and desiccant, and our export packing service can pack the item here in Bideford so it leaves as one finished consignment.
Simple framed crates can usually be built, treated and delivered within days, because the kilns run 24 hours and the timber is in stock. Large or complex cases take longer; send the drawing or the dimensions and weight and we will give you a firm date with the quote.
Yes. Across Devon, Cornwall, Somerset and Dorset the crates go on our own fleet. For the rest of the UK we use dedicated carriers, and we regularly deliver direct to freight forwarders and port warehouses.
Send us the product dimensions, weight and destination and we will quote an export crate that arrives in one piece. Mon to Fri 08:30 to 17:00.
Email our Sales Team : sales@apspackaging.co.uk
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