Pantone Color Matching in Paper Tube Packaging: Why Your Colors Look Wrong

There's a particular kind of frustration that comes with a packaging problem that surfaces late in the launch process. By then, tooling is paid, graphics are approved, and the production deposit is gone. Most of these problems have early warning signs. This piece documents the ones we see most often and what to do about them.

Why Chip Cans Fail on Amazon—and What to Fix Before Launch

Between January 2023 and March 2025, we received 31 distress inquiries from brands whose chip can packaging failed in some way post-launch. Here's how those failures broke down:

• 38%: Product arrived crushed or dented (ISTA 2A failure)
• 29%: Lid/cap popped off during transit (insufficient crimp force)
• 19%: Product went stale before expiry date (liner MVTR issue)
• 14%: Label peeled or print faded in humid warehouse conditions

The Amazon-specific issue is that FBA warehouses stack products in ways that exceed typical retail shelf loads. A chip can that passes a 3-high vertical compression test at 80kg may fail when stacked 6-high in an FBA bin. Our recommendation: specify a 15% compression safety margin above standard ISTA requirements if you're selling on Amazon FBA.

The cap problem is almost always a crimp depth issue. Standard spec is 3.2mm crimp engagement. We see failing cans at 2.6–2.8mm—a 0.4mm difference that sounds trivial but results in cap release force dropping from 25N to under 10N.