A Healthy Knowledge of Package Testing and Testers Can Help Your Package Go a Long Way

by Jay Singh

Without packaging that both sells and protects, top brands like Coca- Cola, Gillette, and Pepsi would lose their market share and ranking. According to one estimate, supermarket prices would rise by more than 20% without proper packaging.

To the packaging supply chain, which includes the raw material providers, converters, packer-fillers and the retailers, the term “packaging” means a way to protect, transport and distribute products. Proper packaging assures that products of all kinds will reach the consumer undamaged, in a hygienic condition, and with important brand and product information.

Besides being the “silent salesman,” a package is also responsible for delivering an undamaged, marketable product—and making sure the silent salesman’s message remains completely intact as well. Packaging fulfills the functions of containment, protection, communication, and utility. To deliver a product from manufacturer to customer in the shape and form intended requires a complete packaging system that is capable of withstanding the hazards of distribution environment. Simulating a package’s harshest destination environment is of great design importance as it may reveal the package or product’s adverse response to its final surroundings.

Simulating a package’s harshest destination environment is of great design importance as it may reveal the package or product’s adverse response to its final surroundings.

This is where package testing can come in, whether introducing a new product or reworking an existing package. Major consumer goods manufacturers often have their own package testing department, but smaller companies often can obtain affordable testing data by funding studies at universities such as Michigan State, Clemson, Cal Poly, RIT, and Florida.

Many transitions in transit

Packages often undergo various transitions between the buyer and seller through companies that transport and handle distribution. During these transfers, packages are usually exposed to many physical and climatic stresses. Vibrations, compression forces, shocks, and temperature and humidity changes can drastically affect a product and its package’s structural strength. It is therefore important that packages be subjected to pre-shipment testing to ensure that the potentially damaging elements of the distribution environment can be met without producing damage or compromising safety.

This kind of testing is often performed at the university level. Faculty and students collect quantitative data on how much damage is incurred by simulating the harshest shipping environments that a package mey encounter. The results of a study are usually recommendations as to how to reduce or eliminate damage of the product.

The role of testing in the development and evaluation of packaging systems has become an important function in today’s corporate manufacturing and development practices. The use of lab testing to evaluate the functionality of a product and package is often preferred to real life testing because it can be better controlled and evaluated. Real-life testing can produce results that don’t really expose a package’s limitations, and it can also becomes expensive and time-consuming.

Standards with precision

In a controlled environment, testing can follow the lead of various standards organizations that use technical committees to develop methodologies that are repeatable and provide a representative simulation of the hazards that will affect a package and the product. These standards have reached a high degree of precision in organizations such the International Standards Organization, American Society of Testing and Materials, and the International Safe Transit Association.

The most common tests are vibration, drop, and compression tests to control damage. This testing can also be used to discover the finer points of package design. A company may want to evaluate the torque retention properties of a new screw-on cap closure on a bottle. The company could be interested in determining the ease of opening by the consumer, and if that might change after shipping, and if the closure will maintain the integrity of the product all the way to every consumer.

Test methods vary widely to accommodate the various aspects of packaging. A company may test the gas and moisture barrier properties of a plastic film material. This information may be used to monitor material properties of the film and control the quality of procured raw material. The same test data could also be used to compare film materials obtained from different suppliers and different production lots. Another use of this information could also be to estimate the shelf-life of a product in a bag or pouch made from this film.

Pre-shipment testing is a tool for designers to optimize a package based on performance—eliminating damage while keeping packaging material costs low. Overpackaging results in no damage, but adds costs and increases environmental pressure from legislators and social groups. Under-packaging results in high damage and can result in reduced product sales. The “happy medium” can often only be discovered through directed and purposeful package testing, often accessible at U.S. universities.

Jay Singh is the Packaging Program Coordinator at California Polytechnic State University, and has written extensively on packaging materials and testing. Jay can be reached at jasingh@calpoly.edu.