A dish pack is a heavy-duty double wall carton with cell dividers, designed so plates travel on edge rather than stacked flat. Sizing one starts with a decision most people skip: are you buying the trade-standard format, or building a carton around a specific product set?
The trade-standard reference
The moving industry has settled on a small family of carton sizes, and the dish pack is the heaviest of them. These published trade figures are useful because your customers already recognise them.
| Trade name | Industry-typical dimensions | Approximate volume |
|---|---|---|
| Small carton | about 16 x 12 x 12 in | about 1.5 cu ft |
| Medium carton | about 18 x 18 x 16 in | about 3.0 cu ft |
| Large carton | about 18 x 18 x 24 in | about 4.5 cu ft |
| Dish pack | about 18 x 18 x 28 in | about 5.2 cu ft |
None of these are iBox stock sizes. They are the sizes the trade uses, and if you are supplying movers or selling a moving kit, matching them is usually the right call because your customer's whole workflow is built around them.
Building one around your own product
If you are packing a specific dinnerware set rather than selling a generic moving carton, size it from the contents:
- Stand the tallest item on edge, the way it will travel, and measure its height. Plates travel vertically because that is the orientation that resists crushing.
- Add cushioning at the base. Nothing fragile should sit on the carton floor with no layer between.
- Lay out the cells. Each divider wall is one board caliper wide, so a six cell grid consumes noticeably more width than six item widths.
- Add clearance at the top so the flaps close flat without forcing the contents down.
Why double wall is not optional here
A full dish pack is heavy and it gets stacked. Double wall board is three liners with two fluted mediums between them, and its caliper is roughly the sum of the two flutes. BC double wall is commonly cited near 9/32 in (about 7 mm). Single wall at that carton size will bulge under a filled load and will not hold a stack. Add one board caliper at each wall to get from your internal cell dimensions to the external carton size, and state on the quote which of those you have given.
Dividers are part of the spec
Cell dividers do two jobs: they stop items touching and they add vertical stacking strength to the carton itself. Specify the grid, for example how many cells across and down, rather than leaving it to be assumed. If you want a cushioned layer or a different grid in the top half, say so. Dividers are die cut the same way the carton is, and tooling is included.
Ordering
Minimum order is 100 boxes. Price starts from about $0.48 per unit at bulk volumes and is confirmed on your written quote, since a double wall carton with a full divider set is a materially different build from a plain shipper. The die, the plates, design support, US shipping and a digital proof are included. Production runs from West Chicago in the US and Guangzhou in China, in three lanes: rush (expedited production plus air freight, a premium of about 7 to 25% depending on the job), standard (air), and cost saver (sea), from about 7 business days, plus 2 to 5 for delivery.
If you want the short version aimed at a specific job, read what size dish pack box do I need. For the board choice behind it, what C flute corrugated is explains where single wall stops being enough. Stock heavy-duty shippers are on the corrugated boxes page. Send your cell grid and your tallest item through the quote form for a carton and divider set priced together.
