Distribution Testing is crucial for evaluating whether or not a package system will effectively protect a product throughout the distribution process. Whether you’re manufacturing lifesaving medical devices, temperature controlled pharmaceuticals, or time-sensitive consumer good, all products have an innate robustness and a point at which they break. While replicating the various events these products will endure, valuable insights are derived to gain a clear understanding of the product’s fragility, the package system’s ability to uphold the integrity of the product, and where it could encounter possible failures in distribution.
Types of Distribution Testing
A series of various distribution tests may be used to emulate the transit environment of any given product. Distribution testing replicates the common hazards encountered, such as drops, vibrations, or compression. Deploying a variety of tests that stimulate these environments, in a controlled, repeatable setting, ensures an accurate depiction of how any given product will be able to withstand its shipping environment.
Compression Testing
Compression Testing evaluates the impact of compressive forces that may occur more frequently when warehousing stacked products or during especially volatile environments in transit. Understanding the compression resistance of any given packaged product allows issues to be identified, corrected, and avoided in future test scenarios.
Drop Testing
Drop Testing is conducted to replicate drop and impact events packaged products experience during distribution. This helps manufacturers understand the specific conditions and events that cause impact failure. These events can be both repeated and varied impacts and may result from both manual or mechanical handling, including horizontal acceleration or deceleration, high level placement drops, and low level placement drops.
Incline Impact Testing
Incline Impact Testing evaluates a package system’s ability to withstand sudden horizontal impacts or crushing forces. In package testing, this rather simple test is especially valuable for high-value and/or heavy products where a test sample could be Less-Than-Truckload (LTL) or a Unitized Load. Shock data gathered during impacts help determine corrective actions that can be taken to mitigate damage assessed during transit or in storage facilities alike.
Vibration Testing
Vibration Testing is performed to simulate the non-continuous nature of true vibration commonly experienced during transit. Enabled with time replication and mixed mode capability, vibration testing is critical to identifying weakened package integrity where it is most likely to occur as product shifts and materials are strained during distribution.
Why Purple Diamond?
At Purple Diamond, we understand that your product’s journey doesn’t end when it leaves the production line—it begins. Our top priority is to ensure that your packaged product arrives at its destination in perfect condition, no matter what challenges it faces along the way. Through distribution testing, our expert engineers rigorously simulate the real-world conditions your products will encounter during transit, identifying vulnerabilities and optimizing packaging systems to ensure ultimate protection.
Using industry-leading testing protocols from ASTM and ISTA, we go beyond standard testing. We partner with you to develop customized solutions that address your product’s unique distribution challenges, providing the confidence that your goods will make it to their final destination safely and intact.
Let’s protect your products together. Contact us today to ensure your packaging is ready to withstand the rigors of distribution and safeguard your business’s reputation.
