Revision of
ISO 4180 Standard
"Packaging-Complete, filled transport packages-General rules
for the compilation of performance test schedules"
ISO Technical Committee
122/Subcommittee 3/Working Group 10
Minutes By Patrick Nolan, COO of DDL Inc.
This report
is to provide highlights of the meeting conducted for the revision
of the ISO 4180 standard. The meeting was called by Mr. Marco
Boncompagni who is the Convener (Chairman) of Working Group 10.
ASTM has been a source of expertise and has provided representation
to international standards writing activities in the past. Volunteers
to represent the USA position on the standard were solicited during
the D10 on Packaging meeting last spring. Based on my association
with ASTM and my intimate knowledge of transport packaging performance
testing I volunteered as an expert to attend a working group meeting
in Italy.
The meeting
was held in Milan, Italy on June 6-7 at the offices of UNI. The
following experts were present for the meeting:
Other experts
of the working group who were not present at the meeting were:
- Mr H Binnendijk
TNO PTC BV Afd Verpakking PO box 6031NL-2600 JA Delft Netherlands
- R Kupova
CIMTO sp U Michelskeholesa 366 CZ-146 23 Prague 4 Czech Republic
kupova@cimto.cz Czech Republic
The meeting
was called to order at 9:45 am on Monday June 6. After introduction
of the attendees, Mr. Boncompagni discussed the objectives of
this WG.
The current
standard is in two parts with Part 1 providing "General Principles"
and Part 2 providing "Quantitative Data". The primary
objective of the working group is to combine the two Parts into
one easier to understand document. The standard in its present
state is not used to any significant degree by the international
community; as Mr. Maezawa indicated that it is "is too old",
so they use their own Japan Industry Standards (JIS). Mr. Boncompagni
agreed "that it is difficult to understand" and supported
the idea that it is not used often for package testing. Mr. Zola
indicated that for package performance testing they often use
IEC standards that are written for packaged electronic products.
So, it is thought that in order for this standard to become more
useful to the packaging community, it must be made easier to understand,
and use more updated and realistic test intensity levels. After
the brief discussion about the WG objectives, the WG agreed on
the structure of combining the two Parts of the current standard
into a single document.
The ensuing
discussion revolved around the proposed draft of the revised standard
presented by Mr. Boncompagni. Some of the highlights of the proposed
draft are presented below:
- The use
of a single-test schedule has been abolished-I proposed that
a true performance test could not be performed using only a
single schedule. A single-test schedule could be performed but
would constitute a research test or engineering development
test. A performance test attempts to simulate a complete distribution
cycle and no distribution environment is made-up of only one
element (e.g. shock, vibration, compression, etc.)
- Section
6.3 on "Levels of Intensity" was reworked to include
reference to
- mass and
geographic destination of the package".
- Section
7.1 "Purposes" (of using performance test schedules)
was expanded to include'how' the performance test wold be used
for 'functional evaluations', 'investigation', 'comparison',
'compliance with statutes".
- Section
7.2 "Use of multi-test and single-test schedules"
was abolished since this standard is not intended as a engineering
development test.
- Section
8.2 'Procedure' was revised to show a 'basic' sequence that
would include the following schedule, in order:
(1) Conditioning
(2) Shock
(3) Compression
(4) Transport Vibration
(5) Compression
(6) Shock
- Test intensity
levels from least severe to most severe were reversed to conform
to ASTM syntax. (e.g. Level 1 is most severe; Level 3 is least
severe)
- The environmental
hazard will be broken-out into a separate table of conditions
to choose. It will not have intensity levels in the same manner
as the mechanical tests.
- Section
12.1 will include the 'Environmental Conditioning'; Section
12.2 will cover the 'Mechanical Loads'.
- Table 4,
5, and 6 are completely revised to follow the 'basic sequence'
of schedules.
Other editorial
revisions were discussed and approved at this meeting. The future
work on the standard will be to discuss the actual test intensities
for each test and to develop the Environmental Conditioning table.
This will be very difficult work since the test intensities are
paramount to conducting a realistic simulation of the distribution
environment.
The estimated
timetable for completion of the WG tasks is as follows:
- All contributions
for revisions to the standard due: June 30, 2005
- Circulate
revised proposed draft standard to WG member for review: July
15, 2005
- Redistribute
final Technical Draft to WG member: July 30, 2005
- Present
to TC 122 for review: August 15, 2005
- Receive
comments from TC 122: ??
The meeting
was adjourned at 3:00 pm on June 7, 2005
