Quality+Environmental Tests

Overview of Package Testing

  • Focus on quality and environmental testing.

Types of Packaging

  • Primary Package: Contains the product, in direct contact with it.

  • Secondary Package: Contains one or more primary packages.

  • Tertiary Package: Physical distribution package, referred to as the shipper.

  • Quaternary Package: Unit load (e.g. palletized load) that is stripped and trapped.

Areas of Testing

  • Quality Testing: Uses standard methods to determine material quality.

  • Environmental Testing: Subjecting packaging to real-world or simulated environmental conditions.

  • Shipping and Abuse Testing: Focused on transportation and distribution, to be covered in next week's lecture.

Quality Testing

  • Utilizes standard machinery and methods to ascertain quality factors like:

    • Smoothness of materials.

    • Water vapor transmission rate.

    • Bond strength between materials (e.g., steel strength).

  • Questions posed in quality testing include:

    • How strong are the materials?

    • What is the quality of the combination of materials?

Environmental Testing

  • Purpose: To expose the manufactured package to conditions it may encounter in the real world.

  • Typically uses approved package subjected to:

    • Real-world conditions.

    • Simulated conditions (acceleration).

  • Accelerated Aging:

    • Involves exposing packages to conditions beyond typical market encounters (high temperature/humidity) to expedite degradation and corrosion testing.

    • Aims to reduce time before market by providing faster testing results.

    • Based on chemical kinetics, noting that reaction rates often double with a 10°C rise in temperature (extReactionRateext 2racextTemperature(Current)+10°C10°Cext{Reaction Rate} ext{~} 2^{ rac{ ext{Temperature (Current) + 10°C}}{10°C} }).

Shock and Vibration Testing

  • Examination of package robustness during shipping, storage, and handling.

  • Use of sophisticated machinery (vibration tables) to simulate real-world conditions.

    • Example: 1 hour on a vibration table simulates 100 miles of transport.

  • Advantages of simulation include:

    • Reduced testing time.

    • Uniformity of results across tests.

  • Real world testing would require logistics but has variable conditions (different roads, truck qualities, etc.).

Testing Standards and Organizations

  • Various organizations establish testing standards:

    • American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM)

    • Technical Association of Pulp and Paper Industries (TAPI)

    • Flexible Packaging Association

    • American Boxboard Association

    • International Safe Transit Association

  • Example Testing Protocol (TAPI):

    • Paper products must be conditioned for a minimum of 24 hours at 73 ± 3.5°F and 50% ± 2% relative humidity to ensure uniformity of test results.

Specific Tests for Materials

  • Paper:

    • Tensile Strength and Elongation: Measures % elongation and failure point.

    • Mullen Bar Strength Test: Measures paperboard strength.

    • Thickness and Opacity Tests.

  • Plastic:

    • Tests for gloss, haze, clarity, slip, blocking, impact fatigue, and flex resistance. For permeability, results expressed in cc's per mil per 100 square inches per 24 hours.

    • MoCon Testing for gases (oxygen, CO2, water vapor).

    • Cup Method for water vapor transmission: involves weighing a cup over time to determine water loss through film.

  • Inks and Adhesives:

    • Testing includes measuring total solids, viscosity, adhesion.

    • Adhesion Tests:

    • Scotch Tape Test: Applying and removing tape from graphics to check for ink adherence.

    • Southern Rub Test: Rubbing a cylinder against a bottle to observe ink residue.

  • Unknown Materials Identification:

    • Determine competitor packaging designs or prevent design infringement.

Environmental Conditions for Testing

  • Controlled Atmospheric Chambers used for environmental testing settings:

    • Simulate normal storage or extreme environmental conditions.

    • Utilize accelerated aging to verify shelf life based on the $Q_{10}$ law, where reaction rates double with every 10°C increase in temperature.

    • Example for shelf life testing:

    • Test for products with a one-year shelf life at ambient conditions (approx. 25°C) may be accelerated to cut testing time by raising the temperature 10 degrees Celsius to achieve analytical results in less time.

Conclusion

  • Lecture focused on quality and environmental testing basics.

  • Upcoming lecture will explore transportation and distribution packaging testing with a guest speaker specializing in that area.