Drop test of small package in actual transportation environment

ASTMD4169-04a - ASTM Standard "Transportation Crate and System Performance Test Specification" Method A - Manual and Mechanical Handling - Manual Handling Part (hereinafter referred to as "ASTM Standard") Test Method and Strength Composition To determine the ability of transport packages to withstand hazards during manual handling, such as loading and unloading, stacking, sorting or loading pallets. The main hazards of these operations are the impact of a drop or throw. Does the standard stipulate the drop height and the number of dropouts for small packages that can truly and comprehensively reflect the actual situation of cargo transport? This article will answer this question.

In order to collect the drop height data during the actual manual loading and unloading process, two Saver data acquisition recorders were used. These two instruments tracked the entire process of the two shipping companies, UPS and FedEx, delivering the same containers. The outside dimensions of the package tracked by Saver are: 175mm x 150mm x 125mm (7 inches x 6 inches x 5 inches) and the package weight is 1.2 kilograms (2.7 pounds). The entire transportation process includes starting and ending points, and the number of handlings, which are performed in full accordance with the actual transportation conditions. The collected data are all collected and analyzed to obtain the number of drops and the drop height of each drop.

After the data collection is completed, the data in the non-transportation period is first removed. Then remove the non-conveyance data during the transport period. This information is determined by the schedule of work provided by the transportation company. Finally, analyze the filtered data one by one. Since the waveforms resulting from the drop and throw are not the same as the waveforms produced by the impact and other transport conditions, only the drop data and the throwing data are eventually retained.

“ASTM Standard” Insurance Level II has clear requirements for the drop height, number of drops, and drop order for small packages. Please see the following table:

Explanation: 1 During the logistics process, the last time a manual move was dropped, the drop height was twice the prescribed height. [It is the last (sixth) drop of the whole drop test, not an extra drop].

What needs to be supplemented is the provisions of the ASTM Standard on the level of insurance: a test intensity level should be specified before the test, and this level should be one of the three pre-determined insurance levels (ie insurance level I, II, III). It should be established in advance based on the value of the product, the intensity of the expected hazard, the number of transport units, the understanding of the logistics environment, or other criteria. In addition to special requirements, it is recommended to choose Insurance Level II. (Insurance level I specifies a more stringent test than insurance level II, and insurance level III specifies an experiment below insurance level II.) Based on the circumstances discussed in this paper, the fall parameter of Insurance Level II is specifically chosen.

The collected data shows (see the above table) that the number of UPS drops is the smallest and FedEx has more dropouts than UPS and even slightly higher than ASTM. From the above information, it can be seen that the severity of ASTM is lower than FedEx's transportation environment, but higher than UPS's transportation environment.

In addition to the number of falls, if you want to understand the overall situation of a fall, you should also compare the average drop height. From the average drop height table, it can be seen that the drop height of UPS is lower than that of FedEx, and the difference between the two is only 50 millimeters. However, the drop heights of both are lower than the average drop height required by ASTM. From this point of view, ASTM's test severity is high.

Combine the drop numbers and drop heights of the two carriers to make it easier to compare ASTM data. Among them, during the UPS transportation process, 55% of the drop occurred in the range of 230 mm and 230 mm in height, and the total height in 500 mm and 500 mm accounted for 90% of the total. The greater the drop height, the smaller the chance of occurrence.

During the FedEx transportation process, 50% of the drop occurred at a height of 230mm and below 230mm, and the total dropped below 500mm and 500mm also accounted for 90%. Most of the falls still occur at lower altitudes.

Through the above comparison between the two companies, it is found that the difference between UPS and FedEx is not significant. Combining the data of the two companies, it was found that 95% of the falls occurred below 750mm and 750mm, and ASTM's drop at this drop height also accounted for 92% of the total. Only 8% of the total over 750mm was true. The transport environment is still very representative.

In summary, the intensity of the drop in the actual transport environment is close to the number of falls specified in the ASTM standard, and the severity is also similar to the standard. To be sure, the drop height required by the ASTM standard does exist in the real transportation environment. Test methods using ASTM standards can provide very high guarantees for packaging, that is to say if the package passes the test of this standard, it will be able to protect the contents in the actual transportation process.

Author: China Packaging Research and Testing Center

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