Packaging of Electronic Components

Electronic components can be packaged into many types of carriers for transportation.  The most common types of packaging include bulk, tape and reel, ammo pack, tube, tray, pallet, and sample box.  The packaging will insure safe passage from the manufacturer through distribution and onto the assembly house or end user.

Bulk packaging is typically a bag of loose piece parts.  For example, if you place an order for 1,000 OSTOP110000 On-Shore Technology connectors, you may receive 10 bags of 100 bulk bags of connectors.  Each bag contains 100 loose pieces of the OSTOP110000 On-Shore Technology connector.  The connectors are manually pulled from the bag and soldered onto a PC board.  Please see below picture for your reference.
 

Tape and reel is typically a continuous tape strip of a part that is attached to a reel.  The reel can then be placed on a pick machine to electronically place the parts onto a PC board.  The tape holds each part into its own individual holder and then is covered with a clear tape to hold into place.  When being quoted cut tape, the seller cuts a strip off of the reel and sells you just the cut strip of parts.  When being quoted partial reel, the seller cuts a strip from the reel and sells you the remaining parts attached to the original reel.  Please see below picture for your reference.
 

Ammo pack is similar to cut tape.  The ammo pack is a continuous strip of cut tape to a predetermined quantity.  However, the cut strip is then placed into its own manufacturer box for safe keeping.  Please see below picture for your reference.

Parts that can be damaged in bulk packaging can be placed in a tube for safe transporting.  Tubes are made of plastic and typically contain 50-100 pieces per tube.  Each end of the tube contains a stopper to hold the parts inside the tube.  Please see below picture for your reference.

Just like the tube, parts can also be placed into plastic trays for safe keeping.  The trays keep the parts from touching one another and from damage. Please see below picture for your reference.

When a sample is needed in small quantity of a small delicate part, the samples can be placed into a sample box for safe transporting.  Please see below picture for your reference.

Finally, when a large quantity of parts are ordered in bulk, the parts can be packaged onto a pallet.  The pallet is then wrapped for safe transportation.  The pallets are typically shipped via freight carrier like Fedex Freight or trucking company.  Please see below picture for your reference.

As a final note, many electronic components are static sensitive.  Care must be used in handling these parts.  Be sure to be grounded when handling any of these parts.  Also, be sure that the parts are properly packaged into static sensitive shipping products.