Cardboard boxes are the most popular, and commonly used, packaging materials. They are being used in households, as well as manufacturing and retail services, commercial spaces etc. They are considered to be the best owing to several reasons. They have unique characteristics that distinguish them from the packaging material made out of wood, plastic or metal. The boxes might look alike, but each type of them has distinguished characteristics. Products as diverse as sensitive electronic gadgets like television sets to bulky wooden handicrafts can be delivered in these. There are different boxes available in the market to suit your purpose. Some of them might be light and delicate, while others offer the same strength and durability as a wooden crate

Prior to choosing the cardboard boxes for product packaging, you must be aware of the measurements. The standard calculation of the cubic volume for these are Length x breadth x height. This is applicable, only if your product is flexible enough to fit in a standard box. The box size is usually decided based on the dimensions of your product. The bubble wraps, polystyrene fill chips, etc block the additional space to provide cushioning to your products. Even the nature of dispatch must be considered to identify the right size. Minor adjustments in the height, or width, might be able to accommodate an extra row of products; thereby, reducing your transportation costs.

Prior to buying cardboard boxes, you need to know that there are single, double and even tri-wall boxes. The choice can be made only after considering the following factors: the weight to be carried, transportation method, height of stacking, nature of the product, etc. The light weight products can be comfortably placed in the single wall cardboard boxes. If they are intended to be shipped or couriered, it is advisable to choose the double walled boxes to avoid any damage. Regardless of the type of the box that you choose, it must be sealed appropriately to ensure that the products remain intact. If you have decided on the size and type of the box, you would want to take a look at the design. The boxes that are seen most commonly belong to the 0201 style. These with equal flaps, on both the ends, are also known as the standard crisp box. Even though choosing the package products might sound like an easy task, it is not always so. The items that are being shipped, or moved, would not be safe, unless you select the right packaging.

The online shopping for cardboard boxes is not just restrained to the businesses. If you want strong packaging stuff for moving your house or office, you can always purchase these boxes. You might even want to use them for storage purposes. As there are high quality boxes available at minimal amounts, it is advisable to purchase these instead of utilizing the old cartons that you collect on occasion. If you are ordering the products, you would be eligible for free shipping or additional discounts. Convenience and affordability are the most relevant features of this venture.

Chances are, if you are reading this then you may be considering tuning your diesel vehicle and have no doubt seen the huge variety of ‘plug in’ boxes that are being marketed as a tuning solution. In this article we will explain the ins and outs of these boxes and shed some light on what they do, and why you should take care when fitting them and consider other tuning options.

Back in the early days of TDi (turbo diesel injection) tuning things were simple, most engines used a simple high pressure mechanical fuel pump and these could be tampered with to increase the fuel pressure, often by a simple turn of a screw. You could also adjust the boost just as easily thanks to adjustable actuator arms that controlled the turbo pressure. Fortunately these engines are now almost obsolete and modern day TDi engines are equipped with advanced engine management systems in the form of Electronic Control Units (ECU’s).

The ECU is nothing more than a small, but highly complex computer that controls inputs and outputs of the engine, it gathers data from hundreds of sensors and inputs and from this information it generates output signals to tell the engine what to do and when to do it. The ECU knows how to do this as it contains ‘maps’ which are developed by the vehicles manufacturer. These inputs and outputs are processed by the ECU maps thousands of times a second, this results in an engine that is refined, smooth, powerful and economical.

So the engine now has no way of being adjusted or ‘tuned’ by a simple turn of a screw as it is controlled by a complex computer system that is only really understood by someone that understands software programming, electronics and an in-depth knowledge of how modern diesel engines work, these individuals are few and far between and to become one of these individuals it would take years of research and learning.

This is how the tuning box came into existence, people knew that you can make a diesel engine produce more power and torque by simply adding fuel, nothing more complex than the old fashioned method of turning a screw, but now that this wasn’t possible, so a new method was developed. This involved fooling the ECU into adding this extra fuel by altering the signal that controls fuel pressure. If you cut the input signal to the ECU from the fuel pressure sensor and use a simple resistor to bridge the break, the ECU will think fuel pressure is low, low fuel pressure can damage an engine and the ECU counteracts this by opening the fuel injectors for longer and/or adds more pressure, this adds more fuel than the ECU thinks and the engine makes more torque. ALL tuning boxes work this way whether it’s £30 from ebay or bought for £300 from a glossy advert in a car magazine, they all use the exact same basic principle, creating an imaginary fault to trick the ECU.

So where’s the problem? I hear you ask. So here it is, using such a primitive method to trick such a highly complex ECU doesn’t even scratch the surface of what is possible. We bought a few of the most expensive boxes available and tested them, we also monitored the vehicle for power output, fuel input, fuel pressure, injector duration, exhaust gas emissions, turbo boost pressure and exhaust gas temperatures.

Our initial findings were shocking, on all of the boxes tested we found that extra fuel was only added in higher load conditions, meaning that although the box did trick the engine into making extra power this would only happen under full throttle. The power gain was also very ‘peaky’ meaning that the extra torque was not generated for very long during the RPM range. Fuel pressure was increased by over 22% (adding stress to the fuel pump and injectors) and we didn’t even need to look at the exhaust gas emissions to know that things were not right, this was obvious by the huge clouds of smoke emitted from the exhaust, a problem that is associated with tuning boxes. Luckily the test vehicle did not have a DPF filter, if it did then it would undoubtably become clogged very quickly. Please visit our website for more info on DPF filters.

Let’s look at why this smoke is here, due to the extra fuel pressure, more fuel is being forced into the engine, however no extra air is being requested in the form of turbo boost pressure meaning a very rich mixture and wasted fuel. But the manufacturers of these boxes have added a small amount of adjustment in the form of a screw for you to turn to alter the amount of extra fuel, one had a series of switches or ‘jumpers’ to move around. So effectively your modern diesel engine is being controlled by an adjustable resistor in a box. Some claim to use microprocessors, however none of these microprocessors match the speed and ability of the ones in your ECU that they are trying to fool, this creates conflicts.

These conflicts can result in fault lights on your dashboard, your engine running in ‘limp home mode’ and we have even seen a Mercedes which had the wiring loom catch fire after having a tuning box installed. Other problems are not noticed immediately and occur over longer periods of time, these include failed injectors, failed fuel pumps, Blocked DPF filters, increased fuel consumption and clogged EGR valves, none of these are easy or cheap to put right.

So why do people sell these boxes? It is simply profiteering. A dedicated and professional tuner will always look for the best way to tune a vehicle and not base their final product on development time, cost or profit, neither will they take the easiest route and sacrifice the final products reliability and quality. Tuning boxes are the exact opposite of what the professional tuner strives to create, many contain nothing more than a few cheap components inside a flashy box, often manufactured in China and offered to resellers in the UK for just a few Pounds per unit.

So in summary, a tuning box is a compromise and also a risk to the reliability and longevity of your vehicle. We certainly do not sell or install them, and this is the case with most professional tuners, however we do remove a huge amount of them from vehicles when diagnosing faults, in most cases this resolves the symptoms of the fault and the customer then looks into having their vehicle professionally remapped.

Businesses and individuals alike often times have reasons for needing computers located outside. No matter the reason why you need a computer outside, protecting it from the natural elements is an important task to undertake. There is a fairly simple solution to this problem and it is waterproof enclosures. Specifically, waterproof enclosures designed to house and protect computers and other electronic equipment.

Waterproof enclosures can be produced using both metals and plastics, and are available in a wide variety of models. The purpose of these containers is to create a watertight container for storage of your equipment. Of course, if you are planning on using your equipment outside then it will need power in order to work. Depending on the box you may need to punch a hole in order to run the power cord to an outlet. Although putting holes in the container may increase the potential of water damage, after running the cords it is possible to seal the hole and retain the majority of the initial amount of protection.

One of the biggest concerns in the minds of customers looking to purchase waterproof enclosures is probably regarding safety. There is no need to worry though, these enclosures are perfectly safe in regards to anyone who would be using the equipment inside. The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) has set guidelines for the protection of outdoor electrical equipment from the elements as well as other man-made contaminants. When looking at enclosures you may see they have a NEMA rating. Any enclosure with a NEMA rating of 3 or higher is suitable for outdoor use. Along with the NEMA rating, there may also be an ingress protection (IP) rating. The IP rating is in regards to waterproof enclosures that have been punctured in order to run electrical cables. To make things short and simple, when looking to purchase a container it would be best to find one with a NEMA rating of NEMA 4 or 6 and an IP rating of IP66 or IP67.

Regardless of why you would have your electrical equipment outside, you want to protect it as best as you can. There are a huge variety in the types of models to choose from, different sizes, materials and shapes. There are plenty of options available for everyone, so you should not have trouble finding something that suits your needs, whether that might be a plastic or a stainless steel enclosure. There are plenty of benefits in purchasing waterproof enclosures, but none for deciding against making the purchase.