Abstract
Packaged goods are shipped daily using the single parcel distribution systems offered by carriers such as FedEx, UPS, and USPS. Through these shipments, packages are exposed to dynamic forces that result in punctures, creases, scuffs, tape failures, and corner and edge crushes. This study measured the frequency and severity of these and other types of damage that occur to long light-weight packages in the FedEx single parcel environment (3-Day Saver). The results of this study showed that the most frequent type of damage in one-way shipments were creases, which represented 61.5 % of the damage events observed. Corner crushes followed with 16.7 %, edge crushes with 6.8 %, punctures with 6.7 %, and tape failures with 1.7 % of the total damages observed. Based on 58 packages shipped, the average box experienced 8.4 creases, 2.3 corner crushes, 0.9 punctures, 0.9 edge crushes, 0.8 others, 0.2 tape failures, and 0.1 scuffs per shipment. Based on these results, a test protocol was developed to reproduce this damage. The test includes vibration testing, compression testing with an edge hazard, at drop onto a point hazard, tip-over test onto an edge hazard, and corner and edge drop tests. The proposed tests correlated well with actual damage.
