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There is growing environmental concern regarding the increasing quantity of packages in retail eCommerce. This study investigated the environmental impact of two returnable packaging formats, performing life cycle assessment (LCA) case studies based on the Canadian apparel eCommerce market. In case study 1, the brand owner sold and shipped its products to final consumers using an expendable mailer and a returnable mailer that was managed and supplied via the centralized model. In case study 2, the brand owner rented its products to final consumers and shipped them using an expendable corrugated paperboard box and a returnable box that was managed and supplied via the decentralized model. Comparative, contribution, and sensitivity analyses were conducted to analyze and compare the environmental performance of these packaging options. For case study 1, the LCA revealed that the returnable mailer had greater impact than the expandable mailer in 9 of the 10 environmental impact categories, even if the returnable mailer was reused for 40 cycles and the final consumer was in the same city as the brand owner; this was primarily due to the length of transportation. For case study 2, the returnable box had smaller environmental impact than the expendable corrugated paperboard box in 6 of the 10 environmental impact categories, even though the brand owner shipped packages to final consumers a cumulative distance of 9000 km from its starting location. The overall results imply that the environmental burden of returnable packaging is primarily affected by total trip distance and the number of reuses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vibrations during transportation often cause mechanical damage to fresh produce. Addressing or mitigating this damage requires efficient packaging solutions that maintain fresh produce integrity during transit, thereby preserving produce quality and market value. This study investigates the effects of various transportation profiles and packaging designs on apple bruising using simulated truck vibrations. Two apple varieties, Fuji and Jonagold, were packaged in corrugated paperboard boxes with paper pulp trays, plastic crates with paper pulp trays, corrugated paperboard boxes with volume packing and plastic crates with volume packing, all commercial apple packaging. The packaged apples were exposed to two random vibration profiles: leaf spring and air ride suspensions, both set at four different intensities ranging from 0.2 to 0.7 Grms for 1, 3 and 5 h. The findings revealed that both packaging type and vibration parameters significantly influenced apple bruising. Especially, plastic crates with paper pulp trays led to the most severe bruising, whereas corrugated paperboard boxes with volume packing afforded the most protection. Regardless of the packaging design, leaf spring suspension resulted in more apple bruising compared to air ride suspension. The findings of this study provide practical insights for packaging engineers to mitigate the apple bruising during transportation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerical modelling of corrugated paperboard is quite challenging due to its waved geometry and material non-linearity which is affected by the material properties of the individual paper sheets. Because of the complex geometry and material behaviour of the board, there is still scope to enhance the accuracy of current modelling techniques as well as gain a better understanding of the structural performance of corrugated paperboard packaging for improved packaging design. In this study, four-point bending tests were carried out to determine the bending stiffness of un-creased samples in the machine direction (MD) and cross direction (CD). Bending tests were also carried out on creased samples with the fluting oriented in the CD with the crease at the centre. Inverse analysis was applied using the results from the bending tests to determine the material properties that accurately predict the bending stiffness of the horizontal creases, vertical creases, and panels of a box under compression loading. The finite element model of the box was divided into three sections, the horizontal creases, vertical creases, and the box panels. Each of these sections is described using different material properties. The box edges/corners are described using the optimal material properties from bending and compression tests conducted on creased samples, while the box panels are described using the optimal material properties obtained from four-point bending tests conducted on samples without creases. A homogenised finite element (FE) model of a box was simulated using the obtained material properties and validated using experimental results. The developed FE model accurately predicted the failure load of a corrugated paperboard box under compression with a variation of 0.1% when compared to the experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigated the influence of the layered structure of paper on its selected strength properties. Two types of cellulose pulp were used: unbleached kraft pine pulp (UBSK) and unrefined bleached birch kraft pulp (BHK). Multi-ply papers were obtained from layers of appropriate grammage formed separately and bonded in a wet state. Paper layers were formed from primary pulps (UBSK and BHK) or their mixtures (threeply UBSK-BHK paper and three-ply UBSK-BHK-UBSK paper), from which various variants of laboratory paper samples were made. This work focused on three-layer papers. The obtained laboratory sheets were analysed for changes in tear resistance, tensile strength, bursting strength, short span compression strength (SCT), and corrugating medium test (CMT). In most cases, three-layer structures were characterised by higher strength parameters than single-layer papers. The tear strength and SCT of papers consisting of three layers formed from both mixed pulps were slightly lower than those of solid papers. The results demonstrate the feasibility of producing three-ply paper with significantly reduced variability in parameters such as elongation and bursting strength, which are inherently subject to high variability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Edible coatings and active packaging have become more prevalent in response to changing consumption patterns and market trends to enhance the quality and safety of fresh products. In this work, we investigated the effect of aloe vera gel (AVG) coating and paraffin wax-coated paperboard (PWB) packaging on the postharvest quality attributes of both grapes and apples during storage. The fruits were coated with 50% AVG concentrations, and the inner wall of the corrugated paperboard was coated with paraffin wax emulsion. The grapes and apples were stored for 12 and 35 days, respectively, at ambient conditions (25 ± 3°C and 80–85% relative humidity). The physicochemical properties, microbiological attributes, and decay incidence of the fruits were analyzed at intervals during storage. Both fruits treated with AVG and PWB packaging retained better qualities than the control at the final day of the storage period. Particularly, PWB packaging provided considerably superior quality from the control sample in terms of weight loss (≈54% and 32%), firmness (≈48% and 68%), and color difference (≈30% and 28%) for both grapes and apples. These findings would introduce a novel approach for preserving the quality attributes of both climacteric and nonclimacteric fruits for a prolonged storage period at ambient temperature by PWB packaging and AVG coating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plain and simple, a corrugated cardboard material provides the right level of protection for goods in transit, which helps keep shipping costs down. As made mostly from wood material, a fairly renewable resource, corrugated cardboards are easily processed and also recycled into paper products and even new boxes. Moreover, thanks to the material's durability, many corrugated packages can be reused multiple times before hitting the recycle bin, which promotes eco-friendly corrugated packaging needs for the environment with no glues or extra binding chemical included inside the packaging at all. The research in this paper proposes a tentative design testbed for a product model of setter tray, wholly made in corrugated paperboard and seated inside packaging with no additional filling material, which, after all, aids realization of a totally eco-friendly corrugated packaging design. A methodical approach, a systematic functional design framework with design thinking methodologies such as function decomposition (FD), quality function deployment (QFD), and morphological matrix, has been introduced to generate a promising concept continuously refined onto a product model. The validation of mechanical properties of the designed product for its functions as desired has been conducted by using not only a computer-aided engineering (CAE) analysis of the computer-aided design (CAD) model, but also an engineering experiment of the product prototypes made of corrugated paperboard, followed by an in-depth discussion on design contributions and future works as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing demand for sustainable and innovative materials in product design has spurred interest in unconventional resources. Despite this, a gap persists in the effective utilization of paper-based materials, particularly with metallic coatings, for creative applications. This study aims to address this by exploring the technical methods for applying Aluminum (Al) coatings to paper substrates. We developed paper-based aluminum coatings and combined them with corrugated cardboard to create a novel material for product development. Utilizing high-strength specialty paper as the substrate, an orthogonal experiment was conducted to identify key process parameters. Factors such as target–substrate distance, working pressure, current intensity, and coating duration were evaluated for their impact on the properties of the Al film. Our research culminated in the production of high-quality Al-plated corrugated cardboard. Capitalizing on its unique attributes, we employed a design approach that led to the creation of innovative furniture featuring structural forms like folding and insertion. This study not only introduces a new range of Al-plated corrugated cardboard products but also expands the potential applications of paper-based aluminized film in material-based product design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corrugated paperboard is a sandwich structure composed of wavy paper (fluting) bonded between two flat paper sheets (liners). The analysis of an entire package using three-dimensional numerical finite element models is computationally expensive due to the waved geometry of the board that requires the use of a relatively large number of elements in a simulation. Because of this, homogenisation approaches are used to evaluate equivalent homogenous models with similar material properties. These techniques have been successfully implemented by various researchers to evaluate the strength of corrugated paperboard. However, studies analysing the various homogenisation techniques and their ranges of applicability are limited. This study analyses the application of three homogenisation techniques: classical laminate plate theory, first-order shear deformation theory and deformation energy equivalence method in the evaluation of effective elastic material properties. In addition, inverse analysis has been applied to determine the effective properties of the board. Finite element models have been used to evaluate the accuracy of the three homogenisation techniques in comparison to the inverse method in modelling four-point bending tests and the results reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The finite element method is a widely used numerical method to analyze structures in virtual space. This method can be used in the packaging industry to determine the mechanical properties of corrugated boxes. This study aims to create and validate a numerical model to predict the compression force of corrugated cardboard boxes by considering the influence of different cutout configurations of sidewalls. The types of investigated boxes are the following: the width and height of the boxes are 300 mm in each case and the length dimension of the boxes varied from 200 mm to 600 mm with a 100 mm increment. The cutout rates were 0%, 4%, 16%, 36%, and 64% with respect to the total surface area of sidewalls of the boxes. For the finite element analysis, a homogenized linear elastic orthotropic material model with Hill plasticity was used. The results of linear regressions show very good estimations to the numerical and experimental box compression test (BCT) values in each tested box group. Therefore, the numerical model can give a good prediction for the BCT force values from 0% cutout to 64% cutout rates. The accuracy of the numerical model decreases a little when the cutout rates are high. Based on the results, this paper presents a numerical model that can be used in the packaging design to estimate the compression strength of corrugated cardboard boxes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finite element analysis (FEA) has been proven as a useful design tool to model corrugated paperboard boxes, and is capable of accurately predicting load capacity. The in-plane deformation, however, is usually significantly underpredicted. To investigate this discrepancy, a panel compression test jig, that implemented simply supported boundary conditions, was built to test individual panels. The panels were then modelled using non-linear FEA with a linear material model. The results show that the in-plane deformation was still underpredicted, but a general improvement was seen. Three discrepancies were identified. The first was that the panels showed an initial region of low stiffness that was not present in the FEA results. This was attributed to imperfections in the panels and jig. Secondly, the experimental results reported a lower stiffness than the FEA. Applying an initial imperfection in the shape of the first buckling mode shape was found to reduce the FEA stiffness. Thirdly, the panels showed a decrease in stiffness near failure, which was not seen in the FEA. A bi-linear material model was investigated and holds the potential to improve the results. Box compression tests were performed on a Regular Slotted Container (RSC) with the same dimensions as the tested panel. The box displaced 13.1 mm compared to 3.5 mm for the panel. There was an initial region of low stiffness, which accounted for 7 mm of displacement compared to 0.5 mm for the panels. Thus, box complexities such as horizontal creases should be included in finite element (FE) models to accurately predict the in-plane deformation, while a bi-linear (or any other non-linear) material model may be useful for panel compression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]