THE USE OF SHOCK RESPONSE SPECTRUM IN PROTECTIVE PACKAGING DESIGN

Protective packaging design and development have to take multiple considerations into account. These are the product’s requirements for protection, the protective properties of the designed package, as well as the balance between the cost of packaging and the product value. A variety of testing methods were developed in order to test for protection performance of packages with respect to shocks and vibrations. These require the making of test specimens and the use of vibration tables which are limited in the ability of reproducing shock pulses and vibrations encountered in the transport environment. On the other hand, there exist mathematical models capable of predicting protective performance of a package at fair accuracy. This paper gives an overview of such models and clarifies common misconceptions on their use. In particular, it clarifies the use of the SRS (Shock Response Spectrum) in the context of protective packaging and points out the distinction between its proper use for this purpose and the purpose it was originally developed for.