Cushioning Sheets for Extra Padding

Protect fragile items when packing and moving by wrapping them in air foam cushioning sheets. These thin, lightweight sheets are better than newspaper for protecting delicate china, dishes, and glassware. They’re also suitable for securing festive season ornaments, artwork frames, and home furnishings while in storage and transit. Find all the foam-padded sheets you need in the large inventory of shipping supplies on Staples®.

Eliminate Bulk by Padding With Air Foam Sheets
These precut foam sheets are lightweight alternatives to bubble wrap, packing peanuts, and other supplies used for padding shipping boxes. Cushioning is facilitated by the rows of foam-lined structures on the surface of the sheets. This padding layer is made of protrusions low enough to lie flat between stacked items. These thin cushioning pads weigh very little, so are ideal for minimizing package weights to save on shipping costs.

Although they’re lightweight and flexible, foam packing sheets are also strong and moisture-resistant. Unlike bubble roll, the foam filling of these pads is compressible and doesn’t pop. These attributes make them more durable and also reusable. The ribbed surface of an air foam sheet helps prevent breakable items like dishes from sliding and rattling when stacked inside boxes. The nonabrasive surface also leaves no scratches on packed items.

Consider Size When Choosing Foam Packing Sheets
You can use foam sheets to completely wrap small items or as cushioning pads inserted between large objects. Find cushioning pads big enough for the items that require protective padding. The most common sheet size for wrapping household objects like plates, bowls, and wine glasses is 12 x 12 inches. This square pad of air foam is suitable for individually wrapping breakables. Sizes range from 4 x 4 inches to 24 x 24 inches.

Foam thickness is another important feature to consider. While the most common sheet thickness is 1/8 inches, thinner and thicker pads are also available. Use ultra-thin foam packing pads with a cross-sectional thickness of 1/32 inches as a cushioning layer for tightly packed stacks of plates to avoid scratching. Sheets measuring 1/2-inch thick are ideal for padding big and bulky fragile items like vases.

What Kind of Plastic Are Air Foam Sheets?
Most brands make cushion foam sheets from LDPE (low-density polyethylene). This plastic polymer has a closed-cell foam structure that gives it high tensile strength and excellent tear resistance. It's a resilient cushioning material that produces impact-resistant foam with impressive recovery. The plastic polymer is also recyclable.

What Are Air Foam Pouches?
They are foam packing sleeves often used to protect consumer products in their packaging. These can be open-end and self-sealing sheaths. They mostly serve as innermost cushioning and are often combined with other packing materials like expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam) and peanuts.

Do Foam Packing Sheets Come in Rolls?
Yes. In addition to square sheets and pouches, brands also offer air foam pads in rolls of varying widths and lengths. Rolls are long uncut sheets often extending thousands of feet. Foam rolls are cost-effective for commercial users with large-scaling shipping operations, and can be cut into smaller pieces for packaging manufactured goods.