Fill-Air Flow Wants to Bring Inflatable Plastic to Small Businesses, Designer Says

Starting in 2014, Wolf led a team of eight to develop a small-scale packaging dispenser, after Sealed Air noticed a rise in the number of small shipping operations.

The 13-by-14-by-8-inch Fill-Air Flow, hung on a wall, feeds a roll of 10-by-8-inch plastic bags into the machine's inflator. Users can customize the desired fill volume using buttons on the front of the device.

The inflator fills as many as 20 bags a minute, sealing them with heat. Using air cushions can make a package 25 percent smaller, Wolf says.

Sealed Air is charging $475 for the hardware, less than half the cost of higher-output competitors such as the Mini Pak'r Industrial Air Cushion Machine. Wolf says he's hoping small businesses will eventually account for as much as 15 percent of the roughly $2bn global market for air-inflated packaging.

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