Mailer boxes

If you have ever had a subscription box arrive, it was probably a roll end mailer. They ship flat, fold up without tape or glue, and open like a book — which is most of why ecommerce settled on them.

How a roll end mailer works

The end walls are not single panels. The board rolls over on itself — wall, then a narrow band, then an inner ply back down the inside — so each end finishes two or three boards thick. That is what makes a mailer far stiffer than its board weight suggests, and why it holds its shape without tape.

The front tucks in to close, and the flaps at each end are captured inside the rolled walls, which is why a well-made mailer has no loose edges inside.

The styles worth knowing

• 0427 — roll end tuck top. The default ecommerce mailer. Deep rolled ends, a hinged lid, front tuck.
• 0426 — a tray with a rounded-front hinged lid. Similar family, different closure.
• 0472 and 0473 — book wraps. For flat products, where the board folds round the item to its actual depth.

Sizing one

Measure the product, then decide what the box has to do beyond containing it.

• Work in inside dimensions. A mailer's rolled ends eat several millimetres per side, so an outside measurement will mislead you.
• Leave a few millimetres of clearance per axis. Board is not precise to the millimetre and a product that only just fits will not go in on a packing line.
• Depth is where the money goes. A mailer deeper than the product needs void fill, which costs twice — once for the fill, once for the volumetric weight.
• Check the flat blank size against your board sheet before ordering. The generator prints the blank dimensions under the drawing.

Board

Most mailers are B or E flute. E flute is thinner and prints better, B flute protects better. For anything heavy, or anything going through a courier network more than once, B flute is the safer default. See flutes and calipers.