Compact Test Machine for Secondary Packaging

Goods such as bottles, cans, jars, etc. are often bundled by applying secondary packaging. A dimensionally stable bundle facilitates the construction of a stable pallet load, to be evaluated according to the Eumos 40509 standard. This study investigates whether it is possible to develop a test method and corresponding test machine that quantifies the shape retention of a bundle in accordance with the test requirements of the aforementioned standard and the boundary conditions of an industrial environment. The method that has been developed applies alternating horizontal inertial forces whose magnitude remains constant for 300 ms with a compact machine. The control system of the corresponding test machine allows that the forces are applied accurately within the specs of the standard. The deformation of the bundles as a function of the number of load cycles is measured and allows the shape retention to be quantified.