commercial document · not required by PPWR
Packaging datasheet
The document packaging manufacturers have been sending customers for years, and the easiest reason to miss your PPWR obligations. Worth knowing what belongs on it and what it does not replace.
In short
A datasheet is a commercial specification agreed between supplier and customer. PPWR does not require it and does not dictate its content — but it is exactly what makes the documentation topic look closed when it is not.
- The datasheet is for the customer: it says what they are buying and against which parameters they will accept it.
- It replaces neither the technical documentation nor the EU declaration of conformity.
- There are as many as you have customers and products — and those, not declarations, justify a tool.
- Once sent to the customer the document should be frozen; a correction goes out as a new version.
What a good datasheet contains
There is no single template, but there is a set of fields customers ask about most often. The list below comes from a datasheet agreed with customers by a made-to-order packaging manufacturer, not from a template pack.
Treat it as a minimum: every missing field comes back later as an email from a purchasing department.
- Specification number, version and date — without them nobody can establish which sheet the customer holds.
- Manufacturer and customer details, plus the product index on both sides if the numbering differs.
- Internal and external dimensions with tolerance — one for the goods, the other for palletisation.
- Weight with tolerance, usually around five per cent, to leave room for board moisture.
- Construction code and how it is made: glued, stitched, printed, handles, extras.
- Board parameters: material index, supplier, flute, grammage with tolerance, ECT, thickness, layer composition, moisture and temperature range.
- A blank diagram with the dimensions labelled.
- Space for the date, the manufacturer's signature and the customer's acceptance signature.
Why dimensions have to appear twice
The customer plans from the internal dimension, because that is where their goods go. Logistics works from the external one, because palletisation and freight cost depend on it. A sheet giving only one of them generates questions on every order.
The difference between them follows from board thickness and how the construction folds, so it can be calculated automatically from the grade parameters. The same goes for weight: blank area times grammage gives a theoretical weight, which you then verify on one weighed box.
That verification matters more than it looks. A weight derived from default geometry can miss reality by tens of per cent if the construction has unusual flaps or reinforcements. One weighing during the rollout settles it for years.
The blank drawing and catalogue licensing
Customers expect a drawing, because nobody visualises a construction from a verbal description. The catch is that drawings from construction catalogues are licensed, and pasting them into your own commercial documents is not safe.
The solution that worked for us: a blank diagram drawn from the dimensions and the geometry of the construction. The customer gets the same information — proportions, crease lines, slots, sheet size and surface area — and the document copies nobody's catalogue.
The side effect turned out to be worth more than the drawing itself: since the diagram is generated from dimensions, the same data yields the blank area, and from the area come weight and material consumption. One number serves the datasheet, the quote and material planning.
A PPWR block on the datasheet — when it helps and when it hurts
Many plants now add a section with PPWR-related data to the datasheet: material code, material category, a statement on heavy metals. That is sensible — the customer gets everything in one place.
The risk starts with fields you cannot back with a supplier document. Recyclability class and recycled content are the usual examples: they look good on a sheet and today have neither a legal basis nor, usually, a source document.
The rule that settles this once and for all: a field with no backing in a supplier declaration stays empty or reads „to be confirmed”. Never „Yes”. If a value is a default rather than a confirmation, the document should mark it with a footnote — otherwise six months later nobody can tell the two apart.
Four datasheet traps
Each looks harmless on a single document and costs you at five hundred.
The datasheet as the only document
Sent for years, so it looks like a complete set. PPWR requires technical documentation and a declaration of conformity — the datasheet replaces neither.
Editing after it went out
Without freezing the document you cannot show what the customer actually received. A correction should go out as a new version with its own number.
Board parameters retyped by hand
Composition, grammage and ECT copied from a supplier price list drift apart at the first parameter change. They should come from one material database.
No distinction between default and confirmed values
A value taken as „fine for now” looks identical on the document to one from a supplier declaration. A footnote on defaults fixes that with a single character.
Frequently asked questions
Is the datasheet required by PPWR?+
No. It is a commercial document packaging manufacturers have used for years. PPWR requires technical documentation and an EU declaration of conformity — the datasheet replaces neither, although it often carries the same material data.
Is there a mandatory datasheet template?+
No. The content is agreed with the customer. In practice the layout and field set are inherited from the largest customer, because they have the most demanding requirements.
Where does the blank drawing come from?+
Catalogue drawings are licensed. The diagram can be generated from the dimensions and geometry — it gives the customer the same information without copying a catalogue.
Is a datasheet needed for packaging bought finished and resold?+
If you sell it under your own index, the customer expects the sheet from you, not from your supplier. It is also worth establishing what role you play in that transaction under PPWR, because it changes your documentation obligations.
How many datasheets does a typical plant issue?+
As many as it has active products at customers. With two hundred customers and a few thousand indexes that is several hundred documents a year — which is why the datasheet, not the declaration, is usually the argument for a tool.
Related topics
EU declaration of conformity
What the Annex VIII template must contain, who signs it, and how many you actually need.
Technical documentation
The file that stays with you and that market surveillance asks for. Annex VII and module A.
PPWR deadlines
What applies from 12 August 2026 and what waits until 2030.
Show us your datasheet — we will show you what it can calculate
Thirty minutes online. We go through your datasheet template and material database, and show which fields can fill themselves in and which must come from a supplier document.
Reference material written during a real rollout, based on Regulation (EU) 2025/40. It is not legal advice or a conformity assessment. Confirm labelling deadlines with your legal adviser.