July 2018

66 67 the small parts in the container without having to use throwaway dunnage. It also gains a visual inventory to make sure that they don’t forget one of the small pieces. There’s nothing worse than transporting an aircraft halfway around the world, opening it up, and then you can’t use it because they forgot one part.” “So, we were able to upgrade a legacy design, eliminate their throwaway dunnage and give them a more reliable package to make sure that the asset was available when it was opened up; and it protected all the small parts better,”Atkins adds. “In 2005, we made five containers a year, and now we make more than 50 or 60 a year.” Another long-time defense client is the Boe- ing Corporation. “Theirs is a container that was designed to be a one-way container because shipping empty containers back is very expen- sive for the government,”Atkins avers. “So, it was designed to be a low-cost shipping and storage container from the beginning. One of the ways we made it low-cost was being able to ship it in a high density, and in an empty condition.When they leave here in Ontario they go to two loca- tions at Boeing to have the components put in. And then, the components are shipped to the end Victory Foam is a family-owned foam fabrication and packaging company headquartered in Southern California. Over our 30-plus years of operation Victory Foam has grown into one of the largest fabricators of custom packaging in California, and our customer base has expanded worldwide. Victory Foam owes its growth and success to the fact that our capabilities and service stand out in the industry. As one of the largest fabricators of custom packaging, we provide custom foam, tool control, custom case inserts, our special tenxion pak, compression packs, and vflex packaging. WE ACHIEVE VICTORY BY WORKING TOGETHER VICTORY FOAM Phone: 949.474.0690 • Fax: 714.619.8571 • Email: victoryfoaminc@victoryfoam.com www.VictoryFoam.com Packaging solutions of the highest quality How can we help meet your packaging needs? PRC COMPOSITES user. After they take the components out, the con- tainer is retired. The construction material is very land-fill friendly, so the military is able to dispose of them without putting toxic materials into the water or ground.” PRC’s commercial contract is with Airbus, the European aircraft manufacturer. “It’s for the jet engines, themselves,” says Atkins. “Jet engines are moving away from aluminum to composite piec- es. These composite pieces are much higher cost than the aluminum equipment, but their weight savings makes the operation of the aircraft much more fuel efficient and cost effective. Our cus- tomer makes these composite components in a variety of different places; there are pieces that are made in Malaysia, Singapore, Viet Nam, Texas, and here in California. Yet, all of the pieces end up in France to be assembled onto an Airbus aircraft. “In the legacy arrangement, they put all of these components in wooden crates and then they’re air-shipped from all of those destinations to France. Then, the containers are disposed of in France. And because of the disposal laws in France, because they have screws in them and foam, they can’t just be turned into mulch; they have to be incinerated. So, there’s a cost to dis- pose of the containers. There’s a cost in trans- portation, in having components of a size that can only fit in a cargo aircraft, and the containers have to be procured every time they have another part - most of the components were one crate, one part. “We took on this challenge to reduce their shipping costs by packaging more components