Is this something I see on the side of the road when I do a 90 degree turn?

Or is it that angle piece in a hospital to protect the corners from being bumped by trolleys?

Or is it part of a bulbar that protects the lights on the corners of the vehicle?

Good questions!

Perhaps Corner Protectors could be used to describe all the above…however what Omni-tuff commonly calls a corner protector, is an angle board that is used to protect product during storage and transport.
There are options of plastics and cardboard and perhaps some people will even use a pressed metal corner for some applications.

The most commonly used would be cardboard and there are a variety of lengths; many users will simply use a 50mm long corner protector, the wings are each 50mm wide. There is a spacer between the strap and the product; this offers two-way protection, as follows:

• One for the product, particularly if the product is soft or sensitive or if the coating might be damaged by the strap.
• Secondly for the strapping – some products are very sharp and can cause a wear point; whether you are using steel strap, plastic strap or woven/fabric strap, a corner protector offers good buffer in this situation as well.
  Other users utilise a corner protector to help unitise the load and ensure integrity up the full height of the pallet; in this case longer lengths of corner protectors or edge board are used, e.g. 1.8m long, or 2.1m long.
  Other users utilise edge board protectors along the top surfaces of the pallets, so they might choose a length of 1m or 1.165m to make sure that the top surface corners are protected from strapping damage or even where a pallet of goods might be loaded on top of this pallet, the corner protectors offer an extra level of support to the integrity of the pallet.

If there is a lot of moisture involved, you might like to consider a water-resistant coating on the cardboard corners, to uphold the integrity of the cardboard for longer.

You might like to use plastic corner protectors as they will not deteriorate in wet conditions. Another tick for plastic corners is that they sometimes come with strap guide lugs to keep the strapping in the right spot on the corner piece.

Another example of corner protectors are the larger plastic angles, where the wings are approximately 140mm wide, and the lengths can be around 400mm or 1m. These have excellent application on trailers and to ensure protection of your goods where the truck’s ratchet straps or chains are used to tie down the load.