PACKAGING A
s purchases are increasingly made via the internet, product packaging and its successful delivery through the distribution chain plays an important role in brand loyalty. Manufacturers must also avoid overuse of
materials to address sustainability concerns. to ensure it can protect the product in the distribution supply chain whilst avoiding over-packaging.
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 test requirements. Where environmental the operational environment. The threats of the distribution environment are not considered, which is often the most severe environment that the product will encounter. Testing also ensures that more sustainable packaging options will withstand the same environmental pressures as traditional materials, making sustainability a functional part of the product’s lifecycle rather than a compromise.
Testing must consider the environments that the product will experience, from being example, this could include:
• Bulk transport • Machine handling • Vibration and shock during transportation (road, rail, air, sea)
• Transportation climatic environment (temperature, humidity, pressure)
• Storage (temperature, humidity, pressure, compression)
• Packages being dropped during handling •
Once a product stops being part of a bulk consignment, there are a wide variety of transport options that come into play. 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. 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 understand how robust your product is, you can procure packaging that will protect your product. Packaging robustness can be assessed by conducting a fragility assessment. The results can be compared with the known threats in the distribution environment and the difference between the two being the protection level required.
WHAT DO THE TESTS INVOLVE?
TEMPERATURE AND HUMIDITY Packages are subjected to controlled
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USING
ENVIRONMENTAL TESTING TO IMPROVE PACKAGING
Robert Campling, senior manager at TÜV SÜD, a global product testing and certification organisation.
conditions of temperature and humidity to establish a baseline condition for subsequent tests. More severe environments are applied to simulate temperature and humidity conditions experienced in the distribution environment.
COMPRESSION
This simulates the load applied by a stack of packages in storage. Compression tests may be performed fairly simply by the application of weights via a spreader. Where the load is high, the test is more safely performed using a bespoke compression machine.
DEFORMATION OF THE PACKAGE TO AN EXTENT
Where the product inside starts to support the load would be considered a failure, as would asymmetric deformation which could cause a stack above to topple.
VIBRATION AND BOUNCE
distribution occur in vehicles, when loosely constrained packages experience bounce conditions and receive a large number of minor impacts to the base and the sides. When secured within the vehicle bounce is eliminated, but vehicle vibration is transmitted into the package.
To ensure test repeatability, bounce tests DECEMBER/JANUARY 2024/25 | IMPACT
Side impact tests are performed to replicate lateral loads which would occur during machine handling. Impacts caused when packages swing from cranes and minor fork-lift truck impacts are simulated using a side impact machine. Impacts up to 5mph are produced by running the package down an inclined plane into a well-supported target faced with wooden planks.
DROP
Any handling of packages either by hand or machine will occasionally result in the package being dropped. Precision drop test machines are often used to perform the test, although other test facilities may be necessary where the package is particularly large.
are performed on a test apparatus, while vibration is applied to both loosely constrained and secured packages. Both tests can be performed with top loads applied to the packages to simulate transportation of a stack of packages.
TÜV SÜD
www.tuvsud.com
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