Are there hidden errors in your data?

TIPS & TRICKS for

PACKAGING TESTING

WHY PERFORM

PACKAGING TESTING?

Testing provides quantitative information about

tear resistance, puncture resistance, peel

strength, heat seal strength, and durability of

materials used in flexible and rigid packaging, and

finished packaging products.

Insufficient or inadequate packaging can

result in

damaged, spoiled or lost product,

liability claims, unsatisfied consumers, and ultimately …

a direct negative impact

on your company’s

bottom line.

PACKAGE TESTING

CAN BE TOUGH

Signal Conditioning plays a critical

role in the accuracy of data captured.

Package tests are often peel tests, so the

test signals contain many short, sharp

peaks and troughs.

Packaging can be delicate and easily

damaged by improper fixtures, grips or

jaw faces.

PACKAGE TESTING

CAN BE TOUGH

Sometimes there is a fine line between

being too easy and too difficult to open a

package.

Does your test data allow

you to distinguish between

the two,

especially when the application

is critical?

COMMON CHALLENGES

IN PACKAGE TESTING

Test Types

• Are you performing the correct test for your products?

Grip Slippage and Extrusion

• Are you using the best grips for your test?

Data Collection & Bandwidth Settings

• Are you viewing all peaks and troughs?

• Are you filtering out any relevant parts of the test signal?

TEST TYPES

Are you performing the best

tests for your materials or

components?

TEST TYPES: PEEL

180° Peel ASTM D3330

BS EN 28510-2

ISO 8510-2

ASTM D1000

T-Peel BS 5350-C12

ASTM D5170

ASTM F88

ISO 11339

90° Peel BS EN 28510-1

ISO 8510-1

ISO 29862

ASTM D5109

ASTM D2861

ASTM D5375

Adhesive

Rigid Stainless

Steel Plate

TEST TYPE: TACK

Dwell

1 sec.

Dwell

1 sec.

Probe

0.197”

diam.

Adhesive

1”-square

adhesive

contact area

Loop of

tape

Probe Tack ASTM D2979

Pressure-Sensitive

Adhesive

Loop Tack BS EN 1719

ASTM D6195

FINAT FTM9

Pressure-Sensitive

Adhesive Tapes

OTHERS

TENSILE ASTM D882

ASTM D412

ASTM D638

ISO 527-1, 2, 3

PUNCTURE (static or impact)

MIL-STD-3010

ASTM D5748

ASTM D7192

COMPRESSION

FIXTURING

Are you using the correct

grips or fixtures for your

application?

WHICH GRIPS ARE BEST?

Using the correct grips is not always

straightforward. Certain gripping

mechanisms work best for different types

of tests, materials, and maximum loads.

Ultimately, 2 things should be avoided:

SLIPPAGE FROM THE JAW FACE

JAW BREAKS

SPECIAL PEEL FIXTURING

DATA RATE &

BANDWIDTH

Are your system

settings correct?

Data is collected from the frame (load and

other analog input devices) in an analog

voltage format, and must be converted to a

digital signal in order to be read and

processed by software.

The analog voltage signals need to be

filtered in order to capture a digital signal

that both makes sense and is usable, i.e., to

filter out unwanted data from the signal.

We filter these incoming signals to block out

what is usually high-frequency “noise” by

adding a filter to the incoming data, thus

adjusting the bandwidth of the system.

An ideal bandwidth filters out

noise and is able to capture the

quickest events within a test.

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY

BANDWIDTH?

SYSTEM BANDWIDTH

The frequency range (-fc to fc) in which a signal’s amplitude is non-zero,

which defines the responsiveness of the system when converting data

into an electrical signal.

Frequency

(Hz)

fc

Signal

Amplitude

Lower Bandwidth Systems: filter out quick, transient signals that

can result in truncated curves and

missing peak values

Higher Bandwidth Systems: track more quickly varying signals that

result in an output that more closely

approximates actual events

AN EXAMPLE

Same exact data …

Different bandwidths

DATA ACQUISITION RATE

How often a signal is saved

50 Hz Data

Acquisition

1 kHz Data

Acquisition

Data shown is an approximation

Data Acquisition Rate Too Low: not capturing all of the important events in

a test

Data Acquisition Rate Just Right: ensure that relevant and important peaks

and troughs in data appear in a test

SO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO ME?

Data Acquisition Rate and Bandwidth are important factors for peel testing

because, together, they dictate what data is captured from the system and

displayed on the test graph.

Bandwidth should be adjustable

to capture quick events, such as

the peaks and troughs of a peel

test curve

Data Acquisition Rate should

be adjusted according to the

bandwidth to ensure appropriate

visualization of the filtered signal

General Rule of Thumb:

Data Rate should be on the order of

10X the Bandwidth in order to gather

meaningful, accurate data (see ASTM E1942)

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME!