Two inventors turned a failed experiment into a wildly popular product that revolutionized the shipping industry.
While young Howard Fielding carefully held his father’s unusual invention in his hands, he had no idea that his next step would make him a trendsetter. In his hand he held a plastic sheet covered with bubbles filled with air. Running his fingers over the funny movie, he couldn’t resist the temptation: he started popping bubbles – just like the rest of the world has been doing since then.
So Fielding, who was about 5 years old at the time, became the first person to pop bubble wrap just for fun. This invention revolutionized the shipping industry, ushered in the age of e-commerce, and protected the billions of goods shipped around the world every year.
“I remember looking at these things and my instinct was to squeeze them,” Fielding said. “I said I was the first to open bubble wrap, but I’m sure that’s not true. The adults in my father’s company probably did this to ensure quality. But I was probably the first child.”
He added with a laugh, “It was a lot of fun popping them. Back then the bubbles were bigger, so they made a lot of noise.”
Fielding’s father, Alfred, invented bubble wrap with his business partner, Swiss chemist Marc Chavannes. In 1957, they tried to create a textured wallpaper that would appeal to the new “Beat Generation.” They ran two pieces of plastic shower curtain through a heat sealer and were initially disappointed with the result: a film with bubbles inside.
However, the inventors did not completely deny their failure. They received the first of many patents on processes and equipment for embossing and laminating materials, and then began to think about their uses: more than 400 in fact. One of them – greenhouse insulation – was taken off the drawing board, but ended up being so as successful as textured wallpaper. The product was tested in a greenhouse and found to be ineffective.
To continue developing their unusual product, the Bubble Wrap brand, Fielding and Chavannes founded Sealed Air Corp. in 1960. It was only the following year that they decided to use it as a packaging material and were successful. IBM had recently introduced the 1401 (considered a Model T in the computer industry) and needed a way to protect the fragile equipment during shipping. As they say, the rest is history.
“This is IBM’s answer to a problem,” said Chad Stevens, vice president of innovation and engineering for Sealed Air’s product services group. “They could send the computers back safe and sound. This has opened the door for many more businesses to start using bubble wrap.”
Small packaging companies quickly adopted the new technology. For them, bubble wrap is a godsend. In the past, the best way to protect items during transit was to wrap them in crumpled newsprint. It’s messy because the ink from old newspapers often rubs off the product and the people who work with it. Plus, it doesn’t really provide that much protection.
As bubble wrap grew in popularity, Sealed Air began to develop. The product varied in shape, size, strength and thickness to expand the range of applications: large and small bubbles, wide and short sheets, large and short rolls. Meanwhile, more and more people are discovering the joy of opening those air-filled pockets (even Stevens admits it’s a “stress reliever”).
However, the company has yet to make a profit. TJ Dermot Dunphy became CEO in 1971. He helped grow the company’s annual sales from $5 million in his first year to $3 billion by the time he left the company in 2000.
“Marc Chavannes was a visionary and Al Fielding was a first-rate engineer,” said Dunphy, 86, who still works every day at his private investment and management company, Kildare Enterprises. “But neither of them wanted to run the company. They just wanted to work on their invention.”
An entrepreneur by training, Dunphy helped Sealed Air stabilize its operations and diversify its product base. He even expanded the brand into the swimming pool industry. Bubble wrap pool covers have become extremely popular in recent years. The lid has large air pockets that help trap sun rays and retain heat, so the pool water stays warm without popping air bubbles. The company eventually sold the line.
Howard Fielding’s wife, Barbara Hampton, a patent information expert, was quick to point out how patents allow her father-in-law and his partner to do what they do. In total, they received six patents on bubble wrap, most of which related to the process of embossing and laminating plastic, as well as the necessary equipment. In fact, Marc Chavannes had previously received two patents for thermoplastic films, but he probably didn’t have popping bubbles in mind at the time. “Patents provide an opportunity for creative people to be rewarded for their ideas,” Hampton said.
Today, Sealed Air is a Fortune 500 company with 2017 sales of $4.5 billion, 15,000 employees and serving customers in 122 countries. Originally based in New Jersey, the company moved its global headquarters to North Carolina in 2016. The company makes and sells a variety of products, including Cryovac, a thin plastic used to package food and other products. Sealed Air even offers airless bubble packaging for less expensive shipping to customers.
“It’s an inflatable version,” Stevens said. “Instead of large rolls of air, we sell tightly wrapped rolls of film with a mechanism that adds air as needed. It’s much more effective.”
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Post time: Oct-05-2024