Air pillows are small, sealed bags of air that sit in the empty space round a product so it cannot slide about in the box. At Pack Solution they come as flat film on a 300m roll, and an air cushion machine inflates and seals the film at your packing bench as you need it. This guide is about using them as void fill: what each film makes, how much fill a parcel needs, when they beat peanuts or paper, when they do not, and how to work out what each parcel costs you. If you are still deciding whether to buy the machine at all, read whether an air cushion machine is worth it first.
In This Guide
- Quick picks for void fill at the packing bench
- What are air pillows and air cushions?
- Film rolls and a machine, or pre inflated air pillows?
- How much void fill does a parcel need?
- How many air pillows do you get from a 300m roll?
- When do air pillows beat packing peanuts or paper void fill?
- When are air pillows the wrong choice?
- How much storage space do flat film rolls save?
- How do you work out the cost per parcel?
- What should you order to get started?
- Frequently Asked Questions
Quick picks for void fill at the packing bench
Most benches need three things: film, a machine to inflate it, and a loose fill for the odd parcel that does not suit air.
Best for light void fill made on demand
Air Cushion Film Rolls
Flat film that an air cushion machine inflates and seals as you pack, so a roll takes up far less shelf space than bags of ready-made fill.
- Air Pillow film: 100 x 200mm pillows
- Air Cushion film: 400 x 330mm, 7 bubbles per row
- 300m per roll, sold one roll at a time
From £20.00 ex VAT (£24.00 inc VAT)
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Best for packing benches that send parcels every day
Air Cushion Machine, Automatic Inflator
An automatic inflator that blows up air pillow and air cushion film at the bench, so you make only as much fill as each order needs.
- Runs air pillow film and air cushion film
- Sold per machine, price per unit falls if you buy more
- Call 0161 706 1246 to confirm film sizes, power and output
£300.00 ex VAT (£360.00 inc VAT)
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Best for low volumes and awkward shapes
EcoFlo Packing Peanuts
Loose fill you pour into the box, with no machine needed, so it suits a seller sending a few parcels a day.
- 5 cubic feet per bag
- White EcoFlo, Blue EcoFlo Ultra or Mixed Colour
- Price per bag falls as you buy more
From £13.00 ex VAT (£15.60 inc VAT)
Choose sizeView productWhat are air pillows and air cushions?
Both are made from the same idea: a thin plastic film with sealed pockets of air. The difference is the shape and the job.
- Air pillows are separate pillows, 100 x 200mm on our Air Pillow film. You drop a handful into the box to fill the space round the product. This is the classic air pillow packaging most parcels arrive with.
- Air cushions come off the Air Cushion film as a 400 x 330mm sheet with 7 bubbles per row. You wrap the sheet round the item or lay it over the top, much like a bubble wrap air cushion layer.
So the pillows are void fillers and the cushion sheet is a wrap. Plenty of benches keep both: the sheet goes round the product and the pillows fill what is left of the box. As air pillow material goes, the film is very light, because each pillow is almost all air, so it adds very little to the weight of a parcel.
You will also see this sold as air bag packaging or inflatable air pillows. They are the same thing. A paper air cushion is a different product made from paper rather than plastic film, and it is not something we stock.
| Film | What it makes | Roll length | Main job |
|---|---|---|---|
| Air Pillow 100mm x 200mm | Separate 100 x 200mm pillows | 300m | Filling gaps round products in a box |
| Air Cushion 400mm x 330mm | A 400 x 330mm sheet, 7 bubbles per row | 300m | Wrapping or covering a fragile item |
Choose your air pillow film roll
Film rolls and a machine, or pre inflated air pillows?
There are two ways to buy this kind of fill. Pre filled air pillows arrive already blown up in large bags. Film rolls arrive flat, and you inflate them on site with a machine. We sell the second route.
Ready-made pillows need no equipment, but every bag is mostly air you are paying to store. Flat film is the opposite: the roll is compact until it goes through the machine, and you only inflate as many pillows as the order in front of you needs.
The catch is the machine. Our Air Cushion Machine, Automatic Inflator runs both air pillow film and air cushion film, fills each pocket with air and seals it. It is sold per machine, and the price per unit comes down if you buy several for more than one station. We do not publish a speed or power figure on the page, so call 0161 706 1246 before you order and we will confirm film sizes, power and output for your bench.
Questions about the best air pillow machine or the best air cushion machine usually come down to three things: will it run the film you buy, does it suit your bench space, and can you get film for it easily. Buying the machine and the film from the same supplier settles the first and last of those. A mini air pillow machine for a desk is a different class of product, and we only stock the one automatic inflator.
Low volume? If you send a few parcels a week, a machine is hard to justify. A bag of loose fill and a roll of wrap will do the same job with no setup.
How much void fill does a parcel need?
Enough that nothing moves when you close the box and give it a gentle shake. That is the whole test, and it is the same for every kind of void filler packaging.
To plan how much to buy, work out the empty space in the boxes you use most. Take the internal size of the box and subtract the space the product takes up, including any wrap round it.
A worked example: the 12 x 9 x 6" box (305 x 229 x 152mm) in our Single Wall Cardboard Boxes range holds about 10.6 litres. If the product and its wrap take up 4 litres, you have about 6.6 litres to fill. The 10 x 8 x 6" box (254 x 203 x 152mm) holds about 7.8 litres, so the same product leaves only about 3.8 litres empty.
That second figure is the easiest saving on any bench. A box one size closer to the product needs less fill, less tape and often costs less to post. Before you order more fill, check whether a smaller box would do.
Best for everyday parcels that need void fill
Single Wall Cardboard Boxes
Light corrugated boxes supplied flat, sold per box with a minimum of 5 per size.
- 5 x 5 x 5" up to 24 x 18 x 18"
- Includes the 450 x 350 x 160mm Royal Mail Small Parcel max size
- Price per box falls as you buy more
From £0.35 ex VAT (£0.42 inc VAT)
Choose sizeView productFor air pillows, the simplest way to plan is to pack one test parcel of each of your common orders and count the pillows it takes. Multiply by your weekly order count for each and you have a weekly pillow count. With loose fill you can work by volume instead: one 5 cubic feet bag of peanuts is about 142 litres, so it would fill the 6.6 litre gap in the example above about 21 times.
How many air pillows do you get from a 300m roll?
Each roll of film is 300m long, and the product page does not give a piece count for either film. The count depends on how the 100 x 200mm pillows sit along the film, so we would rather confirm it with you than print a figure that might not match your machine.
What you can do yourself is measure. Run a length of film through the machine, count the pillows in one metre, and multiply by 300. Do the same with the cushion film, counting 400 x 330mm sheets per metre. That gives you the real number for your setup, and the number of parcels per roll follows from your test-parcel count.
A rough plan for a new bench:
- Start with one roll of Air Pillow film and, if you wrap fragile items, one roll of Air Cushion film.
- Count pillows per metre and pillows per parcel in the first week.
- Divide pillows per roll by pillows per parcel to get parcels per roll.
- Reorder when you have about two weeks of film left, based on your weekly parcel count.
When do air pillows beat packing peanuts or paper void fill?
Air works best when you send a lot of light parcels and want packing to be quick and clean.
- Light goods. Clothing in boxes, cosmetics, books, small electronics and boxed retail products all suit air. The pillows hold them in place and add almost no weight.
- Fast packing benches. When packing air pillows, they come off the machine ready to drop in, and there is no loose fill to spill on the floor or into the customer's lap.
- Short storage space. One roll of flat film replaces a stack of bulky bags.
- Weight-sensitive postage. Mostly-air fill keeps parcels light.
Peanuts are better for small or awkward shapes, because they flow into every corner and gap. Paper void fill is better when the customer expects to recycle it with their paper waste, and when you want something that can also be scrunched round an item. Our comparison of air, peanuts and paper void fill sets the three side by side.
| Situation | Air pillows | Packing peanuts |
|---|---|---|
| Dozens of light parcels a day | Strong fit | Works, but slower and messier |
| A few parcels a week | Hard to justify the machine | Strong fit, no equipment |
| Irregular shapes with small gaps | Pillows leave gaps | Flows round the item |
| Little storage space | Flat rolls, compact | 5 cubic feet bags take room |
| Heavy or sharp items | Not on their own | Not on their own |
When are air pillows the wrong choice?
Air is light fill. It stops movement, but it does not carry much load, and a pillow that bursts gives no protection at all. Pick something else, or add to it, in these cases:
- Sharp items. Tools, metal parts, frames with corners and anything with points can puncture a pillow. Wrap the item first in cushion film or another wrap, then fill round it.
- Very heavy items. A heavy item sitting on pillows can squash them flat over a long journey. Use a stronger box, wrap the item, and build up the base before you add pillows to the sides.
- Tiny gaps round odd shapes. A 100 x 200mm pillow will not get into a narrow gap. Loose fill does that job better.
- Bulky items in big boxes. If you want large air pillows for shipping, the nearest we stock is the 400 x 330mm cushion film, laid in as sheets.
- Very low volumes. The machine only pays its way if it is used.
Fragile goods are a middle case. The air cushion protective packaging sheet goes round the item, then pillows fill the box. That pairing is usually how an air cushion for shipping glass or ceramics is used.
Shake test. Close the box and shake it gently. If you hear or feel the item move, add more fill. If a pillow has gone soft, replace it before the box is sealed.
How much storage space do flat film rolls save?
A great deal, because the film is flat until you use it. A bag of ready-made fill holds its full volume from the day it arrives, so ten bags take ten bags' worth of shelf space before you have packed a single parcel. A 300m roll of flat film sits on a shelf or a spindle by the machine.
For comparison, one 5 cubic feet bag of peanuts is about 142 litres of space on the shelf. With film, the only bulky fill in the building is what is in the boxes being packed that day.
This matters most in small units, shared spaces and home businesses that have grown into a garage. Plastic air pillow film also keeps clean on the roll, where open bags of fill tend to spill.
The protective packaging collection has the rest of our wraps and fills, and the packing equipment collection has the machine and other bench kit.
How do you work out the cost per parcel?
Prices are shown on each product page, ex VAT, and the price per roll falls as you buy more. To compare air with peanuts fairly, work out what each parcel costs you in fill:
- Film cost per parcel. Take the price per roll at the quantity you will buy and divide it by your parcels per roll from the test above.
- Machine cost per parcel. Take the machine price and divide it by the number of parcels you expect to send over the time you plan to keep it.
- Add the two. That is your air pillow cost per parcel.
- Compare with loose fill. Divide the price of a 5 cubic feet bag of peanuts by the number of parcels it fills, using the volume method above.
The machine part shrinks as volume rises, which is why air suits busy benches and peanuts suit small senders. Also count the things that do not show on the invoice: time spent pouring and sweeping up loose fill, shelf space, and postage on heavier parcels. Those often decide which is the best air cushion setup for your bench more than the fill price does.
If you buy regular quantities of air cushion packaging material, ask about a trade account, or call 0161 706 1246 for a trade price on larger orders.
What should you order to get started?
For a bench that sends light parcels every day:
- One automatic air cushion machine per packing station.
- One or two rolls of Air Pillow film for gaps, and one roll of Air Cushion film if you wrap fragile items. These are the air cushion bags for packing most orders.
- A stock of the box sizes you use most, sized close to your products so you need less fill.
- One bag of EcoFlo packing peanuts for awkward shapes the pillows cannot fill.
For a seller sending a handful of parcels a week, skip the machine and start with peanuts and boxes. You can move to film when the volume is there. Any of our air pillow packaging material and fill can be bought one roll or one bag at a time.
Orders placed by 2pm Monday to Friday leave our Manchester unit the same working day, and Royal Mail Tracked 48 is free on every order with no minimum. Within 10 miles of M8 8HF, our local van delivery brings orders placed by 12pm the same day, and free click and collect is open from Unit 2, 50 Derby Street. For anything about machine setup or film sizes, contact us.
Not sure which film to start with? Start with the 100 x 200mm Air Pillow film for gaps. Add the 400 x 330mm cushion film once you know how many fragile items you wrap.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a machine to use your air pillow film?
Yes. Both rolls arrive flat and need an air cushion machine to fill them with air and seal them. Our Air Cushion Machine, Automatic Inflator does this at the packing bench.
Do you sell pre filled air pillows?
No. We sell flat film rolls that you inflate yourself on a machine. If you send only a few parcels and do not want a machine, EcoFlo packing peanuts are the ready-to-use void fill we stock.
What sizes of air pillow film do you sell?
Two sizes, each on a 300m roll. The Air Pillow film makes 100 x 200mm pillows for filling gaps, and the Air Cushion film makes a 400 x 330mm sheet with 7 bubbles per row for wrapping items.
How many air pillows are on one roll?
Each roll is 300m long. We do not list a piece count, because the number depends on how the pillows run along the film. Call 0161 706 1246 and we will confirm it before you order.
Are air pillows strong enough for heavy items?
No, not on their own. Air pillows are light void fill for gaps. Very heavy or sharp items need a stronger box and a wrap round the item first, with fill added after.
Can I buy a single roll of film?
Yes. Both film rolls are sold one roll at a time, and the price per roll falls as the quantity goes up. Orders placed by 2pm Monday to Friday leave our Manchester unit the same working day.
