Export Packaging Requirement Checklist

Define the Shipment Before Designing the Package

Export packaging should protect the specified copper component through handling, transport, storage, and receiving without creating hidden damage, contamination, or unsafe lifting. "Export standard packing" is not a complete requirement because products, routes, destinations, handling equipment, storage periods, and import rules differ.

A. Product and Route Information

• [ ] Part name, drawing and revision, quantity, unit mass, package mass, dimensions, center of gravity, and orientation.
• [ ] Transport mode, route, transfers, destination, planned storage, weather exposure, handling frequency, and known dimensional or mass limits.
• [ ] Approved lifting points, prohibited lifting areas, fork access, crane or spreader needs, and any top-heavy or off-center condition.
• [ ] Sensitive machined, sealing, contact, coated, polished, threaded, welded, brazed, or inspected surfaces.
• [ ] Openings, water channels, nozzles, hoses, fittings, sensors, loose parts, documents, and accessories.
• [ ] Receiving equipment, unloading constraints, unpacking sequence, preservation removal, and storage conditions.

B. Product Protection

• [ ] Clean and dry the component to the agreed condition before closure and packing.
• [ ] Protect openings and internal channels with clean, secure, identifiable closures that do not shed contamination or become trapped.
• [ ] Separate finished copper surfaces from carbon-steel straps, fasteners, dirty timber, abrasive materials, or reactive contamination where contact could stain, scratch, embed particles, or promote corrosion.
• [ ] Protect sealing faces, threads, corners, projections, instruments, fittings, and fragile connections from contact loads.
• [ ] Define the permitted preservative, inhibitor, barrier, desiccant, wrapping, or vapor protection and the receiving method for removal.
• [ ] Use moisture protection appropriate to route and storage without trapping residual water inside the product or package.

Different metals, finishes, rubber parts, electrical contact surfaces, clean water circuits, and vacuum-service surfaces may require different preservation. Do not apply a generic oil or inhibitor unless compatibility and removal are accepted.

C. Skid, Crate, Blocking, and Securement

• [ ] Support the component at structurally suitable locations and distribute the load through the base.
• [ ] Prevent longitudinal, transverse, vertical, and rotational movement for the defined transport route.
• [ ] Do not transmit blocking, strap, bolt, or lifting loads through nozzles, sealing faces, thin walls, cooling passages, instruments, or other sensitive features.
• [ ] Provide blocking, bracing, saddles, chocks, bolts, straps, or restraints compatible with the product and package.
• [ ] Confirm fork pockets, sling access, lifting lugs, balance, package rigidity, stackability, and any no-stack requirement.
• [ ] Keep fasteners and protrusions from contacting the product; control loose items inside the package.
• [ ] Record the final package mass, dimensions, center of gravity, lifting points, and closure method.

A heavy item can still slide, tilt, rotate, or overload a local floor area. Product-to-skid restraint is not the same task as securing the complete package inside or on a cargo transport unit.

D. Wood-Packaging and Destination Rules

• [ ] Identify whether raw-wood pallets, crates, dunnage, blocking, or other wood packaging material will be used.
• [ ] Confirm the destination's current phytosanitary and import requirements before shipment.
• [ ] Where ISPM 15 applies, use compliant treated and marked wood packaging material from an authorized source and preserve mark visibility.
• [ ] Check repaired, remanufactured, reused, or mixed wood packaging for continued compliance.
• [ ] Do not treat an ISPM 15 mark as proof of product protection, structural capacity, moisture control, or compliance with every destination rule.

ISPM 15 addresses phytosanitary risk from wood packaging material made from raw wood. It does not design the crate or certify the packed cargo. Exemptions and national implementation must be checked for the actual shipment.

E. Cargo Transport Unit Handoff

• [ ] Confirm container or other CTU type, internal dimensions, door opening, payload, floor loading, point-load limits, lashing points, condition, cleanliness, and weather tightness.
• [ ] Define who is responsible for loading, load distribution, blocking, bracing, lashing, verification, photographs, seal, mass declaration, and handoff records.
• [ ] Prevent package movement while avoiding restraint loads that deform the package or component.
• [ ] Consider condensation, ventilation, dangerous goods or treated materials, route accelerations, transfers, and unloading safety where applicable.

The IMO/ILO/UNECE CTU Code provides non-mandatory global guidance for packing and securing cargo transport units. It does not replace national or modal regulations, carrier instructions, container certification, or a shipment-specific securement design.

F. Marks, Documents, and Receiving

• [ ] Purchase order, package number, item number, quantity, gross and net mass, dimensions, destination, and handling marks.
• [ ] Center-of-gravity, lifting, fork, keep-dry, orientation, no-stack, and sensitive-area marks where applicable.
• [ ] Packing list, component identity, certificates, inspection release, package drawing, photographs, preservation record, desiccant or indicator record, lifting plan, and unpacking instructions.
• [ ] Tamper, shock, tilt, humidity, or other indicators only when specified, located, recorded, and linked to an agreed response.
• [ ] Receiving checks for package condition, marks, seals, indicators, moisture, movement, corrosion, contamination, damage, quantity, and identity.
• [ ] A defined process for photographs, quarantine, notification, evidence preservation, and carrier or supplier claims before repair or cleaning.

ASTM D3951 provides a commercial-packaging practice for its stated scope. It should be invoked only when the purchase order selects it and its scope fits the shipment; citing it alone does not define every heavy custom component, overseas destination, or storage condition.