Comparing honeycomb paper samples from three suppliers: a fair side-by-side test

To compare honeycomb paper samples fairly, test them blind, on the same day, on the same dispenser, with the same packers wrapping the same products. Score each one on what costs you money: paper used per item, tears, how well the packed box survives a drop, and whether the roll matches its label. Look at the price per roll last, and turn it into cost per order before you decide.

Many sample comparisons are not fair. One sample gets tested on a dry Monday and another on a wet Thursday. One goes on the new dispenser. The packer already knows which roll is "the cheap one". The result then says more about the test than the paper.

Here is a way to run it that I would trust myself.

Before the samples arrive

Send all three suppliers the same written request. If one quotes 80 GSM and another quotes 70 GSM, you are comparing two different products.

Ask each one to write the specification on the roll label. You will check the roll against it later.

How do I make the test blind?

Take the labels off, or cover them, and mark the rolls A, B and C. One person keeps the key in a sealed envelope and stays away from the bench.

This sounds fussy. It is not.

I would keep the person who chose the suppliers away from the scoring as well, even if that person is the owner.

Packers have opinions about colour, about smell, about which supplier's carton looked better. A blind code takes those out. If a brown roll and a slightly lighter roll arrive, cover the difference as well as you can, or at least do not tell the packers which supplier sent which.

Let them settle in the same room

Paper takes moisture from the air and gives it back. A roll that crossed an ocean in a container is not in the same state as one that came by road.

Testing labs condition paper in a standard atmosphere before they test it. ISO 187:2022, the ISO standard for conditioning paper and board (third edition, October 2022), uses 23 °C and 50% relative humidity as its standard atmosphere. You do not need a lab. But keep all three rolls side by side in your packing room for at least a day before you start.

Test 1: does the roll match its label?

This is the easiest test and the one buyers skip most.

We run the same idea at our own gate. When raw kraft reels reach our plant in Jaipur, we test the GSM, moisture and strength of the paper before it goes near a cutting line. Your sample test is the same discipline, one step later.

1. Weigh each roll on a parcel scale. Note it.
2. Pull off exactly 1 metre of flat, unopened paper. Weigh it on a kitchen scale.
3. Grams for that 1 metre, divided by the flat width in metres, gives the GSM.

Worked example: a 380 mm wide strip, 1 metre long, at 80 GSM should weigh about 0.38 x 80 = 30.4 grams. If it weighs 26 grams, the paper is closer to 68 GSM than to 80. A kitchen scale that reads to the gram is good enough to catch that.

Do it three times per roll, from different depths if you can. Paper that varies along the roll will show it here.

If our roll fails this check, I want to hear about it.

Test 2: how does each roll behave on the dispenser?

Each paper has its own best tension setting. So first find that setting for every roll, and write it down. Then test each at its own best setting.

1. Pull 10 sheets of the same length at your packers' normal speed.
2. Count the sheets that tore.
3. Count the sheets that came out half-open, or opened on one side only.
4. Measure one opened sheet's length and width against its flat length and width. That gives you the expansion for this paper on your dispenser.

If one roll needs a much tighter setting than the others to open, note that too. It will need watching on the line. Our guide to setting dispenser tension explains how to find the best setting quickly.

Test 3: wrap your own products

Choose three of your real products: a light one, a heavy one, and the one that breaks most often. Wrap 10 of each with every sample. Use two or three packers, not your most careful one.

Record the flat metres used per item. The simplest way is to weigh the roll before and after, and use your GSM figure to turn grams back into metres. Our guide to honeycomb paper consumption shows that arithmetic.

Also note how many items needed a second wrap.

A second wrap is the cost nobody puts on the price list.

Test 4: drop the packed boxes

Use the same box, the same product, the same number of layers, and the same drop height for every sample. Drop each box on a corner, an edge and a face, in the same order. Then open it and look. For checks on the paper alone, without a product, see our guide to testing honeycomb paper strength at your desk.

This is a rough shop-floor test, not a lab one. For a formal test, labs use procedures such as ISTA 3A from the International Safe Transit Association, which simulates parcel delivery with drops, vibration and conditioning. If your product is expensive or your returns are high, it is worth paying for.

The scoring sheet

I would score like this. Change the weights to suit your business, but decide them before the test, not after you have seen the results.

A roll that fails the label check is out, whatever else it scores. If the label is wrong on a sample, I would not trust it on a container.

Turn the price into cost per order

Only now open the envelope and look at the prices.

Suppliers usually quote per roll. I still think you should judge per order.

Worked example, with round numbers for illustration only. Say roll A has a price index of 100 and packs 160 of your orders. Roll B has a price index of 90 and packs 125 orders, because packers used more of it and wrapped some items twice.

Roll A costs 100 ÷ 160 = 0.63 per order. Roll B costs 90 ÷ 125 = 0.72 per order. The cheaper roll is the more expensive one to pack with.

This is a pattern we know well. Buyers who move to a cheaper roll often come back, because weak paper tears, packers wrap twice, and the paper used per order goes up.

What a sample cannot tell you

A sample is one roll. A container is hundreds of them.

I will be honest about our own samples too, because the same applies to us. Any supplier can send a good roll. What you are really buying is whether the hundredth roll is as good as the first. So keep a labelled piece of the winning sample, write the sample date on your purchase order, and check the first delivery against it.

Then ask the suppliers how they keep lots consistent. Our quality page lists what we check on every lot, and our guide to auditing a supplier covers what to ask the others.

Put us in your comparison

If you are comparing suppliers now, add us to the test. Tell us the width, GSM and roll length you want, and the dispenser you use, through our contact page. We will send a roll from our range with the specification on its label, so you can run every test above on it.

If we come second, I would like to know why.