Failure due to perforation in corrugated board boxes

Corrugated board boxes are often used as secondary packaging to protect consumer goods during transport. In shelf ready packaging, the boxes are perforated so that the front and top of the box can be easily removed and the remainder of the box can be used to store and display the goods. The perforations however also make the box weaker and less efficient for protection. The balance between the require-ments is today found by trial and error, but could benefit from a more systematic approach. In this study, we started with one of the basic tests of corrugated board boxes, the box compression test. A reference box without perforation and three boxes with different perforation were tested. During the box compression test, a pressure sensitive film registered the distribution of load, an IR camera registered heat from dissipa-tive processes such as plasticity and fracture, and a displacement transducer was used to measure out-of-plane deflection of box panels. All boxes, independent of perforation, failed at similar compression forces, suggesting that the box compression test alone is not an adequate test for performance of the perforated boxes. It was however observed that the perforation did influence the failure of the boxes. The proximity to perforation affected where the panels failed. Analysis of displacement indicated that the perforations main-ly were loaded in compression or shear. During transport and handling, more severe loading situations for the perforations would occur which other tests can capture. Vibration tests can be used to study fatigue. Box compression tests with misaligned stacked boxes, loading of the whole box in other modes such as shear, or drop tests will all introduce complex loading were also tension and out-of-plane shear will occur. Climate tests can give effects similar to fatigue. Climate variations also has a large effect on creep