TestingExpectationsandObjectives ...

1 Nes for Selecting andUsing ISTA Test Procedur esand ProjectsThese Gui deli nes are intende d to pr ovide the user ofISTA Test Proceduresand Projects and other ISTA docu ments with insi ght an d informati on on theprot ocols, and what factors to consider in se lection,use, and results FACEThe Intern ationa lSafe Transit Associati on (ISTA) is aglobalalliance of shippe rs, carriers, sup pliers, testing laboratories,and educational an dresearch institutions focused on thespeci fic concerns of transp ort packaging. We help ourmembers contro lcosts, damage, and resources during thedistribution of packaged- eating and publishing laboratory preshipment TestingProce dur rtifying Packaging rtifying Packaging Laboratory Profes rtifying packaged viding education, training ,and supportGe ttin gStar ted2 Testing Ratio nale2 Testing Exp ect ations and Objective s2-3 Testing as aDe monstrationof Minimum Use of Packaging3La bora tory Tests and Distri bu tion Hazards3 Typ es of ISTA Tests4 Use of the ISTA CertificationMark After Testing5 ISTA 7E Progr am and Using the ISTA Thermal5 Certificatio nMarkISTA ResponsiblePackagi ng by Design Program6 SpecializedTest Protoc ol sDe veloped by ISTA6 Membe rPerformanceTests6 Special Cons iderations for ISTAP rocedures&Projects6-7 Kno wYour Dis tribution Envi ronment7 Product Dam age Tolerance and Package7 DegradationAllowa nceFa ce.

2 Edge and Corner Identification7-8 Samples an dReplic ate Tes ting8 Rete sti ng8 Rete sti ng Based onChange sinCorrugatedBoard8-9 Return Dist ributio nTesting9 Line Ext ensio nPol icy9 Identif ication of Product and Package Teste d9 Test Pa ramete rTol erance s9 Rou nding Dur ing Cal culations9 Add itio nal Considerations9-10 App licability of Rec ommenda tions or Certifications10from Industry OrganizationsSug gested Steps for Selecting aTe st Protocol11 Remin ders for Use of ISTA Test Proto co ls11 -12 Doc umenta tion of Tests12 Com mu nic ation with ISTA13 ISTA Test Report Testi ng13 ISTA Test sQuick Reference14-15 ISTA Test sOrg ani zed by Distri bution Mode or Type16 Standa rd 20 and RPbD Guide17 January2017 InternationalSafe Transit rights IDE LINES FO RSELECTINGAND USING ISTA TES TPRO CEDURES & IDELIN ES FOR SELECTINGAND USING ISTA TES TPR OCEDURES&PROJE CTSGETTING STARTEDF ollowing are four straightforwardsuggesti ons to impr oveprot ective packaging effectiv enes s and move towar d theIST Tes tthe you are not regularly using a lab orat ory packa geperf ormance test, start now.

3 Ev en asim ple lab tes tusedwisely is preferable to trial and error or total reliance on fieldexperi Know Your Distribu tion En vir on ment .Find out more about how produc ts move, includi ng thevariety of channels used to move your goods. If you ar easuppl ier to shippers ,help them ex plore thi sinformati on. Usethiskn owledge toidentify sour ces of di stri bution hazards andobserve or measure them. Use this knowledge to reduceexposure to hazards of dis tribution, to help speci fy theperf ormance of pack ages, and to select an appr opr iatelabo rato ry test protoc Contin uously Review and Impr tion hazard s change, as do pac kaging mater ial ew and retest even the mos t success ful designsperiodically. Rapid situation changes, such as new mark etsor distribution strategies, requir eimmediate Stay Up to eve ry opportunity to learn more about your pr oduc tsand distribution, learn about new technologi es andproced ures, and exc hange knowledge with other swho havesimilar concerns.

4 Educational opportuniti es, suc has ISTA' sannual TransPack Forum ,are agood source of ISTA Certified Packaging Laboratory Professi onal(CPLP) pr ogram and the Responsible Packaging by Des ignprog ram are excellent educational and recogniti on tool ou tmore from ISTA Headquartersor visit ww STING RAT IONALEThe need for testin gcom es from the dif ficul ty of predic tingwhat will happen in large-sc ale operations ,coupled with therequ irement to make decis ions prior to impl , every tes t com es from the need to make adeci sion. The test results prov ide the decision- maker withinforma tion to he lp maximize correct decisions. Thedeci sions supported by pres hi pment performance testi ng oftransp ort packaging are typic all yabout how well the packagewill pr otect the contents during ing can also be amandated activity as part of apack agedevelopment,new pr oduc t release, or engineeringmodification.

5 This tes ting may be driven by organizati onalpolicy (corporate specification, for example), by regulat oryapplic ation (testing of packaging for hazardous materials anddan ge rous goods , for example), or by custo merrequi rements (purchase specification, for example). Whilethese situat ions usua lly have little flexibili ty in test selection,they are still inthe broad category of supporting decisions onpack aging types of tests are available but adetailed treatment isoutsi de of the scope ofthis document. Material tests seek tochar acterize material performa nce for the use indesign anddevelopme nt, such as cushion curve s. Engineering testsseek to find aspecific performance quantity, such as thedeceler ation experie nce dby aproduct inapackage whendropped from some height, as in an instrum ented drop EXPECTATIONSAND OBJECTIVESA nimportant con sideration inthe selec tion of atest protocolisthe obj ective of running the test, , what information isneeded to make the decision assoc iated with this pu t, these specific objectives for each test might becategori zed simply gtes twould be used to avoid serious problems inshipment, us ually damage to the pro duct.

6 Thi stest objective category is acomm on one, an dcanadequately fill the ne eds of ma ny users. Screening testsgive the user con fidenc e that the chances of serio ustransport damage have been minimized and have thefollowing general characteristics: simple and inexpensiveto perform wi dely available and accepted util ize simple equipment accom mod ate known and su spe cte dsevere hazards are not nece ssarily asimulationof the hazards ofdistr ibution achi eve dam age resistanceby ch allenging the streng thand robustn ess of the product and package (a str on gprod uct/packageresists damage).Predi ctionis amore dif ficult exp ect ation for apreshipmentperform ance test. While scree ning seeks to avoid seriousprobl em s, pr ediction must allow the user to foresee moresubtl eeffects, such as minor dama ge, oc casional damage,ornon- fun ctional problems with the pac kage. In an idealpredi ction situat ion, the tested samples and representativesam pl es of distribut ed products would be sisnot always entirely possible given the technology mixavai lable today, but it is IDELI NES FO RSELECTINGAND USING ISTA TE STPR OCEDUR ES &PROJECTSPr ediction allows the user to fine-tune co st andenvi ronmenta limpact as well as helping to avoid damage ofall types.

7 By testing incrementally reduced cost andmaterial-contentdes igns, the near -optim um configurationcoul dbe achieved. Prediction mi ght al so allow the us er todesi gn apackage for arepeatable low level of damage,consist ent with an objective of lowest overal lsystem t a good prediction test to represent fieldperf ormance, this trade-off of pac kage cost and dam age costwoul dbe largely gues swor STING AS ADEMONST RATIO NOFMINIMUM USE OF PACKAGINGISTA tests establi sh lower limits for pa cka ged -prod uctperformance,but in gene ral do not set upper re, used in the ir most straightforwardpass/failfash ion, ISTA test s do litt le to detect over-pac kag ingsitua tions. However, with the addition of a "reduce todamage" or "pass with minimum margin" appr oac h, ISTA test ing can be used for the demonstrationof minimum use ofpack aging. "Reduce to dam age" means that ifapac kaged-prod uct passes the tes t it must be redesigned wi th les spack aging and tested again until an optimum level isreache d.

8 The Reduce to Damage approac hisan essentialcompon ent of an effor tto mak epack aging more sustai nabl e(as descr ibed in the Respons ibl e Packagi ng by Designpr ocess guideline. "Pass with minimum margin" mightinvolve subjecting apackaged-productwhich has passedthe test to increased sev erity levels, deter mining whendamage does occur, and then verifying that those levels arenot ove rly "redu ce to damage" or "pass with mi nim um margin"prot ocol employing screening tests should be used withextreme caution. Sinc e screening tests may not wellrepresent actual field ex pos ure ineither intensity or type, thetests can not be readily shown or proven to have agoodrelat ionship to the field damage. Us ing sc reening tests canperh aps be effective if coupled with a program of fieldmonitoring and feedbac kafter pack age redesign. But the farbet ter approach is to use tes ts which prov ide agood ac tualsimulat ion of the distri bution haz TS AND DIS TRIBUTI ONHAZARD SFour basic categories of hazards exist indistribution: Shock,Vibr ation, Compression,and Atmospheri c.)

9 Each hazardcategory is refl ected in alaboratory test method, althoughnot al l ISTA Pr ocedures and Projects include all testmethods. Within each test method are more specific teststhat are use dto simulate specific hazar ds in following table summarizes these rel le 1Ha zar dCate gor ies an dTe st TypesDistri bu tionHa zar dMa jor Te stCatego ryAssocia tedTest Ty pe sHandli ng Dropand Impa ctSho ckDro p free-f al l rotati on al on hazard ha zard impactInclin eImpactHo rizon tal ImpactVertic al ImpactTranspor tat ionVibra tionVibra tionFi xe dDisplacem ent rotary vertica llinearVariabl eDispla ce ment vertica l ho rizontalRa ndo m vertica l ho rizontal mult i-axisStacki ng LoadCo mpr essionAt mospheri cConditio nsAt mos pheri cTem pera ture con stan t cyc leHu mid ity con stan t cyc lePress ur e con stan t cyc leItis import ant to note that test prot ocols can evaluate theeffectiveness of packaging only for haz ards represented inthe pr otocol.

10 Fo rexample, atest procedure that does notinclud eacompression test isunable to evaluate apackagedproduc t's resist ance to ware house stacking loads . Byknowi ng the dist ribution environment inde tail (see GettingStar ted, above), use rs can select an appropriate test toeval uate the performance of packaging inlight of all knownhazards. Withou tthis sele ction process, real hazards maynot beaddr essed as part of apa ckage's protective ability,and si gni ficant damage could result in spi te ofatest beingpass (dead load )Machi ne ap ply &release ap ply &holdDyn am ic Load Under Vibrat IDELIN ES FOR SELECTINGAND USING ISTA TES TPR OCEDURES&PROJE CTSTY PES OF ISTA TESTSIST Atest protocols are approv ed by Test Ser ies Gr oups and by the ISTA Techni cal Divisi on. New pr otoc ol sar einiti ally given thedesi gnation "Project" during their impl ementation phase. After amini mum one-year period, a"Pr oject" iseval uated and will eitherbe adopted as an established "Procedure", revi sed and kept as a"Proj ect" for another period of time, or be Ahas organized its test prot ocols int oSeries, as follows:1 Series: Non-Simu lati on Integ rity PerformanceTes enge the stre ngth and robus tness ofthe pr odu ct and pack age co mbination.