DISTRIBUTION PACKAGING SYMPOSIUM

ASTM Meeting, Anaheim, California7th April 2007, Monday 10 am – 12.00University Liaison Committee(Cal Poly, MSU, RIT Packaging Programs)

Agenda

Hazards in distributionSingle Parcel Shipping EnvironmentTransportation Vibration MeasurementDangerous Goods Shipments

Dangerous Goods Shipments

Hazards in Distribution

Physical/Transportation Environment

Refers to the freight movement activities and the hazardous incidents and elements occurring during these activities

ImpactStacking

Vibration

Impact

Stacking

Visual inspection, incubation and other testing

Hazards experienced in a simple shipping scenario

Physical/Transportation Environment

Annual damage to consumer products ~ $10 billion in the U.S. due to transportation and handlingLed to “Shock & Vibration” area –PACKAGING DYNAMICSShock – instantaneous, drops, ↑ FVibration – continuous, vibration, ↓ F

Global Supply Chain

Salinas, CA

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Helsinki, Finland

Seoul, Korea

Tokyo, Japan

19 HOURS

Blood Red Strawberries

Height of Summer

Distribution Hazards

Following are some dynamic forces encountered by a package during distribution:Manhandling: dropping, throwing and other abuses applied by the manual loading, unloading and movement of packagesWarehouse handling equipment: stresses applied by mechanical handling equipment such as forklifts, conveyors, etc.

Distribution Hazards

Vehicle impacts: starting, stopping and other jolts due to the movement of trucks, railcars, ships and aircraftVehicle vibrations: naturally occurring vibrations resulting from the motion of engines and moving contact of the vehicle with highway and rails

1. Single Parcel Shipping Environment

Single Parcel Shipping Environment

The past decade has shown a great increase in the number of direct to consumer shipments of products and packages. Using various modes of transportation, these packages are routed between destinations after being sorted using hub and spoke models.

Ship

per t

akes

par

cel t

o dr

op Receiver picks up parcel

Origin –shipper’s premises

Destination – receiver's (consignee’s) premises

Local pick-up vehicle (multiple stops)

Origin hub or terminal

Destination hub

Local pick-up vehicle

Local delivery vehicle

Carrier drop location – drop box, mail store or post office

Carrier pick-up location –mail store or post office

Lines haul (truck, rail or

air)

Intermediate hubs

Line haul

A Hub-and-Spoke System

Operating Center

Operating Center

Cargo AircraftCargo AircraftNational Hub

Package Car

Package Car

Package Delivery System

Air Transport Containers

Air Transport Containers

Single Parcel Shipping Environment

Over 30 major studies completed with major carriers for US and EuropeThere is a continuous need to quantify what happens to these packages as they are handled both manually during collection and delivery and on large high speed conveying and sortationequipment at hubs. The dynamic events during these moves can cause damage. The information collected for the hazards experienced in route by the packages is useful in designing protective packaging.

Single Parcel Shipping Environment Comparison Study

Objectives:To characterize the dynamics of the second-day air express environment for small (7.75” × 7” × 5.75”) and lightweight packages (less than 5.5 lb) shipped by USPS, UPS, FedEx and DHL within the US.To provide recommended test levels for drop testing packages of this size and weight for the single parcel shipping environment.

Examples of Transportation Recorders

Instrumentation

Lansmont model Saver 3X90 and IST EDR 3CInternal tri-axial accelerometer that records:

Drop heightsImpacts Vehicle motionVibrationTemperature Humidity Duration of 90 days

TEST PACKAGE SHIPMENTS

Test Package

Shipping Routes

Shipping Routes of FedEx

Shipping Routes of UPS

San Luis Obispo, CA

Van Nuys, CA

Goleta, CA

Grand Rapids, MI

East Lansing, MI

Shipping Routes of USPS

Results

CarrierDrop Data

USPS UPS FedEx DHL

Number of Drops 49 82 100 102

Maximum Drop Height (in) 136.86 74.49 74.69 131.84

Drop height at 99% occurrence (in) 59.42 52.20 72.59 68.30

Drop height at 95% occurrence (in) 44.26 25.90 49.35 43.96

Drop height at 90% occurrence (in) 38.12 15.44 24.69 34.84

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

Number of Drops Maximum Drop Height(in)

Drop height at 99%occurrence (in)

Drop height at 95%occurrence (in)

Drop height at 90%occurrence (in)

USPS UPS FedEx DHL

Results

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140

Drop Height (in.)

Cum

ulat

ive

Perc

enta

ge

FedEx USPS UPS DHL

Results

Drop Height (in) Shipping CompanyUSPS UPS FedEx DHL

Highest 136.86 74.49 74.69 131.842nd Highest 59.42 52.20 72.59 68.303rd Highest 44.26 48.73 71.36 66.204th Highest 41.78 41.56 51.48 49.435th Highest 39.65 25.90 50.76 48.806th Highest 38.12 22.79 49.35 43.967th Highest 32.77 21.54 36.56 40.288th Highest 31.26 17.93 31.95 40.149th Highest 28.94 15.44 31.57 36.6310th Highest 28.17 13.30 31.45 35.30

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

Highes

t2n

d Highe

st3rd

High

est

4th H

ighes

t5th

High

est

6th H

ighes

t7th

High

est

8th H

ighes

t9th

High

est

10th

Highest

Dro

p H

eigh

t (in

)

USPS UPS FedEx DHL

Results

Orientation of Drops (%)Carrier

Face Edge Corner

UPS 19.36 36.62 44.02

USPS 8.17 57.14 34.69

FedEx 13.95 44.26 41.79

DHL 20.59 28.43 50.98

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

UPS USPS FedEx DHL

Orie

ntat

ion

of D

rops

(%)

Face Edge Corner

Results

The typical number of drops according to ASTM and ISTA test methods range from six to ten to twelveSelect optimum number of drops for lab simulation of shipping environmentCreating lab test depends on looking up the values in the provided tables:

Drop height based on Assurance Level for product Orientation %

MSU CDP Published StudiesSingh, J., Singh, S. P., Voss, T., Saha, K. “A Study of the Effect of Pictorial Markings and Warning Labels on Handling of Packages in the DHL Single Parcel Environment,” Packaging Technology and Science, In Print. Published online in Wiley InterScience(www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/pts.800Singh, J., Singh, S. P., Burgess, G., Saha, K., “Measurement, Analysis and Comparison of the Parcel Shipping Shock and Drop Environment of United States Postal Service with Commercial Carriers”. Journal of Testing and Evaluation, Vo. 35, No. 4. Garcia-Martinez, M., S. P. Singh, V. Cloquell, and K. Saha, "Measurement and Analysis of International Air Parcel Shipping Environment for DHL and FedEx between Europe and United States”, DOI 10.1002/pts.775, Journal of Packaging Technology and Science, John Wiley and Sons, 2007.Singh, S. P., G. Burgess, J. Singh and M. Kremer, "Measurement and Analysis of Next Day Air Shipping Environment for Mid Sized and Light Weight Packages for DHL, FedEx and USPS”, Journal of Packaging Technology and Science, John Wiley and Sons, Vol. 19, 2006.

MSU CDP Published StudiesSingh, S. P., G. Burgess and J. Singh, “Measurement and Analysis of the Small and Light Weight Parcel Shipping Environment”. Journal of Testing and Evaluation, ASTM, Vol. 32, No. 5, 2004.Singh, S. P. G. Burgess and J. Singh, “Measurement and Analysis of the Second-day Air Small and Light-weight Package Shipping Environment within Federal Express,” Packaging Technology and Science, 17: 119-127, 2004.Singh, S. P., G. Burgess, Z. Hays, "Measurement and Analysis of the UPS Ground Shipping Environment for Large and Heavy Packages", JTEVA, Vol. 29, ASTM, 2001.Singh, S. P., Cheema, "Measurement and Analysis of the Overnight Small Package Shipping Environment for Federal Express and United Parcel Service", JTEVA, ASTM, Vol. 24, No. 4, 205-211, 1996.