PC-JUN23-PG08-09.1_Layout 1 06/06/2023 11:49 Page 8
PACKAGING PACKED TO PERFECTION
Marcus Sampson, Business Line Manager for Transport at TÜV SÜD, explains the importance of environmental testing to achieve protective packaging
t first, the connection between environmental testing and brand loyalty is not immediately obvious, but the two key drivers of brand loyalty, service and product quality can both be beneficially influenced by testing. For example, performing environmental testing to ensure that a product delivers against expectations of quality and maintains its desirable features when exposed to adverse conditions will support brand loyalty. Likewise, safe delivery of a product is a significant element of the service provided.
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As purchases are increasingly made via the Internet, never before has product packaging, and its successful delivery through the distribution chain, played such an important role in brand loyalty. Failure of product packaging during distribution is the source of many complaints and poor customer experience will influence a purchaser’s future choice.
Packaging failure is not uncommon - anyone who receives parcels regularly will have their own horror stories regarding inadequate packaging. To avoid this, it is vital to test packaging efficiency to ensure it can protect the product in the distribution supply chain.
Many manufacturers make the mistake of thinking that ensuring products comply with mandatory tests set out in product standards is enough. However, for many products there are no specified environmental test requirements. Where environmental testing is specified, they often only address the operational environment and the threats of the distribution environment are not considered. Mandatory tests rarely provide confidence that the product will survive the distribution chain, which is often the most severe environment that the product will encounter during its life.
How do you approach environmental testing in the distribution environment? Firstly, you must consider the environments that the product will experience - from being packaged to its final delivery destination. For example, this could include: • Bulk transport • Machine handling
• Vibration and shock during transportation (road, rail, air, sea)
• Transportation climatic environment 8 JUNE 2023 | PROCESS & CONTROL
(temperature, humidity, pressure) • Storage (temperature, humidity, pressure, compression)
• Packages being dropped during handling • Repacking for final dispatch
Once a product stops being part of a bulk consignment, there are a wide variety of transport options. For example, if a consolidation bag is used by a carrier to transport goods, then a product will be held with a number of different sized and shaped packages. This means the sharp and stiff edges and corners of one package have the potential to pierce the sides of others. Vibration, bounce and shock are always experienced during transportation, with the severity varying according to the vehicle used. Similarly, the climatic environment may have extreme temperatures; often combined with humidity and pressure. While most transportation platforms will provide some thermal protection, the longer the journey the greater the likelihood that extremes of temperature, both hot and cold, will be experienced during the distribution process. As soon as humans enter the equation, there is also likely to be more occasions where the packaged product is dropped. For example, if the packages are not correctly restrained during transit, they will fall over. Even if the product was transported with care, there is always the risk that it might be accidently dropped.
If you know the limits of the environmental threat in the distribution environment and you know how robust your product is, you can procure packaging that will protect your product.
Packaging robustness can be assessed by conducting a fragility assessment, which requires the application of increasing environmental stress until failure occurs. The results can be compared with the known threats in the distribution environment, and the difference between the two being the protection the packaging must provide. Fragility assessments and specific transportation characterisation are more commonly reserved for products that absolutely must work out of the box; products of high value may also be treated in this way. For most packaged products, conducting testing to levels that represent the common environmental conditions that can be expected in the distribution environment would give an acceptable level of confidence. A useful reference is the guidance set out by the International Safe Transit Association (ISTA), which provides test standards for different classes of packages in the distribution environment. Tests should include:
• Temperature and humidity - simulates conditions experienced in the distribution environment.
• Compression - simulates the load applied by a stack of packages in storage. • Vibration and bounce - simulates vehicle distribution.
• Impact - replicates lateral loads which would occur during machine handling. • Drop - which could occur by hand or machine.
When cultivating brand loyalty, it is easy to focus on product quality and concentrate efforts on producing an exceptional product, but if the product is damaged in transit this quality may never be realised by the purchaser.
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