Ceramic tiles are shipped in stacks. The tiles themselves are hard, but the edges chip, and the glazed face scratches if anything abrasive touches it. The standard solution is thin foam sheets between each layer, or cardboard interleaves. Both work. Both cost money, and both have to be ordered, stored, and cut to size.
A tile distributor in the north of England took a different approach. They handle large-format tiles, some up to a metre long, and ship to builders and retail customers. Their packaging room was dominated by stacks of foam interleaving in various sizes, most of which were the wrong size for a given order.
They already had an Aircosan P50 in the building, bought originally for a different purpose. The machine runs at 18 metres per minute, handles 55cm width, and takes cardboard up to 15mm thick. It produces either mesh or strips depending on the setup.
The idea came from one of their packers. Rather than using mesh, they switched the machine to strip output and used the strips as interleaving between tile layers. The strips are laid in parallel lines across the tile face, providing separation without the bulk of a full sheet. Tiles sit flat, edges are protected, and the glazed surface never contacts the layer above.
The distributor was candid about the trade-offs. Strips take longer to lay than a single foam sheet. For large orders, that time adds up. But the material cost is effectively zero, since the cardboard is already on site, and the storage space freed up was substantial.
They also noted that strip output is not suitable for very heavy stacks. Under significant weight, the strips compress and the tile edges can still touch. For those orders, they keep foam on hand.
Aircosan manufactures these units in their own facility and produces models up to 120cm wide. The distributor mentioned that when they needed advice on blade settings for strip output, the factory answered directly rather than routing them through a distributor.