Technical Workgroup Updates: Progress continues with ISTA’s technical community on tackling new test method development.  These new individual test methods will account for distribution hazards that commonly occur to a broad range of packaged-products but are not currently targeted in current test methods.  Below is a brief overview of the workgroup efforts:

There are several different distribution hazards that have an influence on the stability of a unitized load.  These hazards range from short duration impacts because of pallet marshalling or trailers backing into docks to long duration events commonly experienced during braking events and transitioning through corners, roundabouts, and cloverleaf ramps.  It was for this reason that the workgroup, early on, segmented the potential work streams with their initial focus being on short duration impacts.

Smithers and ISTA assisted Michigan State University School of Packaging with instrumentation and documentation of two different field trials.  Raw field data along with video were captured and used to draft a test method.  This draft method addresses short duration pallet marshalling events and will be provided to the Standards Council for consideration. 

The workgroup is currently working on the scope of the next phase which will focus on the longer duration events. If you have interest in participating or are curious to know more about this workgroup's progress, please reach out to ISTA for more information.

Common freight securing practices such strapping freight to the side walls of a trailer, air bag or pallet dunnage used to fill void spaces and stabilize freight can lead to concentrated forces being exerted on packaged-products. To address these forces, the workgroup drafted several theoretical test methods. The next logical step was to get into the lab and start tinkering. To help facilitate this proof of concept work, ISTA along with ABF Freight provided support to four ISTA University Lab members - Clemson, MSU, RIT & Wisconsin Stout. Early feedback was encouraging and yielded new ideas.



Additional support is always welcome. If you would like to contribute by either sharing your experiences, executing some or all of the test methods, or contributing packaged-product to the correlation study, please reach out to ISTA for more information.

Getting involved with ISTA’s Technical community is a great way to not only ensure you’re staying connected to the most current information out there but provide influence over the technical matters that impact the packaging industry. 
 
If you would like to contribute to ISTA and the packaging industry by volunteering, ISTA’s Test Series Group (TSG) is a great place to start. The TSG is ISTA’s consensus body responsible for voting on proposed new ISTA Test Protocols, technical revisions to existing and reaffirmation of existing ISTA Protocols as well as the addition & termination of TSG members. To ensure balance and openness, involvement in the TSG is open to ISTA members and non-members.

If have interest in ISTA’s TSG, please submit the TSG Membership Request Form to ista@ista.org or would like more information about the group, please contact Eric Hiser at ehiser@ista.org