A product to reach safely to its consumers isn’t an easy task. The product needs to be packaged right and made through go through various package testing process to find if a package can hold the product in the right way.
Packaging comes in many shapes and is made from a variety of materials depending on the product it is designed to protect. That may include beverage bottles, food packages to keep them fresh or medical packages to keep medicines in prescribed conditions. To check the reliability and strength of the packaging various material tests are performed.
Structural rigidity tests are performed on bottles that carry beverages to make sure that they don’t rupture or break when stacked. A burst test is done to determine the point of rupture when the bottle is filled with content.
While the bottles are in production-line, it is made sure that the bottles don’t ram each other due to varying measurements such as height that need to be checked. Wall thickness is found when the bottle is subjected to various factors. Bottles are packed one over the other and transported in pallets, therefore, a top-load test is done to find the rigidity of the bottles and stacking force are found.
Most of the tests are now digitized with a digital force tester configured with compression plates that apply force on the top. The height of the bottle can be taken by programming the tester to move its crosshead down to a force low enough to just touch the top of the bottle. The next test involves displacing the bottle to a point where the force point is considered. The force should fall in between the permissible limits to ensure that the bottles are safe to be transported. Seals of the packaging are glued using pressure, mostly done for packing cookies, chips, cereals etc. Consumers often end up tearing the package to get the product mostly after failing to rip out the seal, which happens because the seal material is tougher than the packaging material.
The structural integrity of the material used for packaging can be determined using peel testing. The test allows us to pull apart seals to find the strength required to tire the seals. There are different types of peel tests and a variety of results that require a testing system such as a Lloyd LS1 testing machine. A common test is to cut a strip one inch wide and four inches long with the seal in the middle, commonly called a T-Peel. The ends are placed in the grips for the specimen to be pulled apart at a pre-Programmed test speed so that the material is uniformly pulled apart. Common results include Maximum Force and Average Peel, which in some cases is called Peel Strength or Seal Strength.
Burst strength testing is done to find the integrity of the entire package. The package is compressed between two slabs to determine the force required for bursting. The test ensures that the product inside the package is fresh and isn’t broken under the permissible amount of force. This allows bags to be well stacked for transportation.
These are some of the most common package testing, which allows consumers to receive their products fresh and intact. Most packages now have a use-by date to make the best out of the package.
Emphor DLAS offers the instruments which tests if your packaging is intact and visit us on Emphordlas for any packaging testing instrument.
