IoPP Journal of Packaging (January 2013) Page 1 Estimating Tote Drop Height & Impact Acceleration from a Transportation Recorder Siripong Malasri, Wei Siow, Mallory Harvey, Phyo Thoon Aung, Rhett Jordan, Paul Shiue, and Ray Brown Healthcare Packaging Consortium Christian Brothers University 650 East Parkway South, Memphis, TN 38104, USA Abstract: Healthcare products are often shipped from a distribution center to a retail store in plastic totes. Previous research on plastic tote distribution at the Healthcare Packaging Consortium has suggested that the use of bubble wrap and air pillows at tote bottom and top, respectively, reduces impact. In addition to the use of bubble wrap and air pillows, monitoring tote handling would also have the potential to reduce distribution damages. A transportation recorder was used to aid this study. Equations were developed from the drop test data to estimate drop height and impact acceleration at tote bottom from impact acceleration obtained from the recorder. Keywords: Plastic tote distribution, transportation recorder, drop height, impact acceleration Introduction Healthcare products are often shipped in partially-filled plastic totes from a distribution center to a retail store. Product damages have often occurred during this phase of the distribution process. The product damaging problem was validated and organizing the tote contents was recommended [1]. Placing a bubble wrap sheet at tote bottom while filling the upper part of the tote with air pillows, was found to be very effective in preventing damages [2]. Monitoring tote handling is another area that would help in preventing product damages. Two useful pieces of information are: (1) when and how high a tote was dropped during the distribution and (2) what the maximum impact acceleration was during the distribution. The first allows the shipper to pin point mishandling locations, thus improvements can be made, such as proper handling training. The second could be useful for cushion/package design. A transportation recorder (also called saver) is a useful device for monitoring tote handling. Conventional commercial recorders are shown in Figure 1. Typically, a recorder can record shock/impact, temperature, and humidity. Some recorders are capable of determining drop heights; however, they do not measure these heights directly [3]. In a previous study [4], drop heights were correlated to recorder’s impact accelerations experimentally through drop test. However, the previous study only covers drop heights from 12” to 24”. Through the study this equation was developed: y = 0.5243x – 3.4853, where y = estimated drop height (inches) and x = saver’s impact acceleration (g). Measuring impact acceleration at tote bottom often cannot be completed directly since a typical recorder can measure impact acceleration up to 100g to 200g. A drop of the hard plastic tote on a hard surface can result in an impact acceleration of more than 200g even with a drop height as low as 24”. Thus, the recorder must be cushioned and impact acceleration obtained is relative depending on the amount of cushioning. Measuring the real impact acceleration at tote bottom is also complicated by the various vibrations of the thin plastic shell used at tote bottom, as will be seen later in this paper. This paper reports a study using a transportation recorder to determine experimental tote drop heights (from 12” to 48” drop heights) and impact accelerations at tote bottom. A simple recorder setting was used. Equations for estimating drop height and impact acceleration were developed for such recorder setting.