For testing fragility, packaging material and packed product you can use different test equipment.
Professional laboratories are using a compression tester. Such a test machine is a weight with a mechanical plate in the top slowly compressing the package. The measurements are stored in different kind of electronic equipment as a combination of the movement of the plate connected to the measured forces.
Companies can also use own low cost equipment to generate the same tests.
- The package can be compressed using a plate (wood or steel) and well defined loads. You can get a well-defined load but it is difficult to measure the compression distance. The problem is that the plate is floating and you cannot be sure that the plate and the floor are parallel. The floating situation results also in lower performance than a compression tester because you are only measuring the weakest spots on the package. Different distribution of loads over the plate will result in different test results.
- If the company is not willing to live with the disadvantages of the very simple equipment (plate and loads) another simple equipment can be build. A pneumatic cylinder mounted on a rig and with a plate on the rod can be a simple compression tester. The simple way of having data is recording the air pressure. A better result is reached using a weight under the parcel.
