DEVELOPMENTS / NETS 1
V. Ryan © 2003 - 2022
PDF FILE - CLICK HERE FOR PRINTABLE WORKSHEET | |
Look at a typical product on a supermarket shelf. It’s packaging started life as a flat development / net, probably printed on a piece of card. It was then cut out, folded and glued to form the package. A simple net / development for a cube like package is seen below. |
|
|
|
|
|
The packaging of a modern mobile phone is seen below. Mobile phones arrive in the shops in stylish boxes / packaging. Each package is manufactured from a material such as quality card. The insert is normally made from either lower quality, recycled card or vacuum formed hi-density polystyrene. This protects the phone and charger inside the package. |
|
MOBILE PHONE NET / DEVELOPMENT FOLDED TO FORM THE PACKAGING | |
![]() |
![]() |
Card is popular packaging material because it is cheap and it can be
recycled. Also, colour and images can be applied using a number of
printing techniques. Normally the card is lacquered to give the box a
gloss / satin finish. Often the packages are cuboid in shape as this means that they can be transported and stacked on shelves easily, efficiently using space. Below is a ‘development’ / ‘net’ of the mobile phone packaging. |
|
![]() |
|
Packaging for almost any product is made in multiples. The only time a
single package / net is manufactured is usually when a prototype package
is required, so that it can be tested and improved. In industry a large, single sheet of card will be used to manufacture many individual developments / nets. The diagram below is a typical layout. It shows multiple nets of the mobile phone packaging, printed out on a single piece of card. This reduces waste and is a cost effective way of manufacturing packaging. |
|
![]() |
|
The mobile phone packaging has been arranged as multiple nets, with very
little space between each one. This arrangement of shapes is called a
tessellation. A tessellation is a shape that is repeated over and over
again without creating gaps or spaces. A Tessellation is sometimes
called ‘tiling’. In industry it may be necessary to make thousands of the same type of package. In order that materials are not wasted, the developments / nets are organised on the card in such a way that there are only small gaps between each individual shape. Special cutters called Die Cutters, are pressed into the material to stamp out the nets / developments, which are then folded by machines to from the packages. (CLICK HERE FOR EXAMPLE OF DIE CUTTERS) |
|
|
|