The case for reviewing laboratory‐based road transport simulations for packaging optimisation

Today, there exist a number of standards designed to assist packaging engineers with implementing suitable laboratory testing regimes for road transport. However, these standards generally focus on translational vibrations and do not include other motions that may affect survival rates during transport (e.g., pitch and roll). The standards also do not account for the significant variations in vibration (root mean square [rms]) levels that are clearly evident during transport. Further, the analysis and interpretation of vibration frequency spectra typically ignore the possible presence of harmonics or shocks. Most standards also advocate some form of time compression to reduce testing duration by artificially amplifying the simulated vibrations. Each of these individual approaches combines to render the simulated vibrations currently in use unrepresentative of what occurs during transport, thereby making it difficult to optimise packaging systems. This article focuses on road transport shocks and vibrations and highlights the shortcomings of proposing and making changes to test methods based on limited data obtained from specific transport scenarios. It argues that only once all the evidence, taking into account a broader set of scenarios from multiple studies, has been collected and the correct scientific analysis applied, should changes to test protocols be proposed and implemented. The paper includes specific recommendations for further evidence collection and analysis for each of the main issues associated with road transport vibrations, namely, spectral shape, rms levels and test duration, nonvibratory events such as shocks and multiaxis vibrations.