Gaylords in Lawrence and North Andover, Massachusetts

Heavy goods, heavy boxes

Boiler manufacturing and advanced manufacturing do not pack light. A boiler component, a casting or a bracketed assembly wants a box with a full flap bottom and a high wall count, because a partial flap leaves a gap the load can find. That is where our questions about wall count and bottom style earn their place. A four-wall or five-wall box in decent grade is the box a manufacturer here asks for.

The same plants empty gaylords too. Inbound castings arrive on pallets in sturdy boxes, and the empties are good for another trip: Grade A or B in most cases. Sell requests from this area are worth sending even when the count is modest.

Where the roads meet

Lawrence sits where I-495 crosses the Merrimack and I-93 passes a few miles east, with Route 114 and Route 125 connecting the two. North Andover is just to the north and east on the same road. Anyone moving boxes here can reach the Woburn and Wilmington docks down I-93, the Lowell shops along I-495 to the west, and Marlborough and Devens further around the belt.

ZIPs 01840, 01841, 01843 and 01845 cover the two municipalities; 01845 is North Andover. Put the ZIP in the request so a load reads as local.

Which request to send

Manufacturers short of boxes should send a buy request with the footprint, the wall count and the load in the message: "cast iron fittings" or "formed sheet metal." Plants with empties should send a sell request with the same details. Mixed lots with different footprints are common here, and the printed-and-mixed page covers how those are sorted.

Heavy product means heavy boxes. A Lawrence or North Andover request should lead with the weight of a full box and the bottom style it needs, then the footprint. Mention how the boxes arrive and whether anything in the stack carried oil or coolant from a machining step.

Close by on the chart: Lowell, Wilmington, and Woburn.