How to Order

Stage 1 — Tell us about the vial

This is where a project either starts cleanly or acquires a problem it will carry to the end.

• What we need — Body diameter, cap diameter, total height over the cap, and filled weight — or, better, three or four physical vials.
• Why several — Glass varies within a batch. A cavity tuned to one sample can be too tight for the next.
• Anything else in the box — A syringe, ampoule, leaflet, card or desiccant sachet. Each needs its own cavity profile.
• Empty vials only — We are not equipped or licensed to receive filled vials, medications or any regulated material.

If you have never measured a vial for packaging, the method in our guide to measuring a vial takes about five minutes and avoids the mistake almost everyone makes.

Stage 2 — Specification and quote

We propose a build rather than asking you to choose from a list, because the right structure follows from the contents and the journey.

• What you receive — A proposed structure, insert, material and finishing, priced against your quantity.
• Usually two options — We quote alternatives — a folding carton against a two-piece build, or a grid layout against a single row — so the cost difference is visible.
• Freight is included in the comparison — A long box costs more to ship than a square one holding the same vials, and that difference is often larger than the box cost difference.
• Tooling stated separately — Where a formed tray, a foil die or an emboss die is needed, that one-off cost is shown rather than buried.

Stage 3 — Die line and artwork

A die line is a flat template showing every panel, fold, glue area and bleed edge for your specific box.

• We issue the die line — Drawn for your carton, at 100%. Your designer works onto it.
• Do not redraw or scale it — Panels will not align with the cutting tool, and that is the most common reason a file has to go back.
• Preflight — We check bleed, resolution, colour space, fold clearance, registration risk, barcode sizing and separations.
• Digital proof — For colour and layout sign-off before anything is made.

What we do not check is content. Accuracy, claims, mandatory statements and regulatory requirements are yours to review. The file requirements are on the artwork guidelines page.

Stage 4 — Physical sample

This is the stage worth insisting on, and the one that gets skipped when a deadline is tight.

• What it proves — That your actual vial seats in the actual cavity, and that the box closes without pressing on the closure.
• What a screen cannot show — Soft-touch texture, foil brightness, deboss depth, board weight, lid friction, or whether a loaded box rattles.
• How to test it — Load it, close it, invert it, shake it. If it makes a noise, tell us and the specification changes.
• For kits — Load it, then remove three vials and look at it half-used. That is the state it will spend most of its life in.

Stage 5 — Production and delivery

• Quality checks — Colour against the approved proof or spot reference, cut and crease against the die line, insert fit with a real vial, glue seam strength, and counts at packing.
• How components arrive — Folding cartons, partitions and folded trays flat and banded. Foam cut, loose or pre-fitted. Formed trays nested. Rigid boxes assembled and interleaved.
• A retained sample — We keep an approved reference against the job so a reorder reproduces it rather than approximating it.
• Delivery — To business and residential addresses across the United States. Transit time depends on the carrier and is not something we guarantee.

Reordering

Repeat runs are considerably simpler, provided nothing has changed.

• Quote the previous job reference and confirm the quantity.
• Tell us immediately if the vial, the closure or any component has changed — even a supplier change with the same nominal size.
• Colour is matched against the retained sample rather than against a fresh proof.
• If artwork has changed, a new proof is issued; if only the quantity has changed, it usually goes straight to production.

What can go wrong, and when it is cheap to fix

Roughly speaking, the cost of fixing a packaging problem multiplies at each stage.

• At specification — Almost free. Changing a layout, a structure or an insert type costs a conversation.
• At die line — Cheap. A revised die line is quick, provided artwork has not been built on the old one.
• At sample — Moderate. Tooling may need adjusting, but nothing has been printed.
• At production — Expensive. Board, plates and press time have been committed.
• After delivery — Most expensive of all, and it is the only stage where the problem is also your customer's problem.

That is the argument for spending an extra day at stage one. The mistakes we see most often are catalogued in our note on common ordering mistakes.