THE CARTON DROP TEST

The carton drop test is a quality check that s commonly done in the factory by when performing a QC inspection. The carton drop test is generally only done on full master (shipper) cartons. It is performed by dropping the carton a total of 10 times;first on a corner (the most vulnerable one or one likely to cauuse damage),then on once on each edge (shortest dege first),and then on each face (smallest face first).

Drop Height: The height from which the carton is dropped should depend on the weight of the carton, although you may modify it if you feel the height is not appropriate for the item that is packaaged. See the test standards pasted below in this post.

Post drop inspection: Once all drops have been made,open the carton and examine the product and packaging inside,starting with product that was most near the dropped corner first. Sepratate any defects and look for suspicious results in regard to how all of you packaging reactedto the drops.

Judging the result: The result is considered a PASS as long as the actual finished goods encased is not damaged. If ther is serious damage to the retail packaging or other important packaging inside,you may also consider this a quality issue. It depends on how important you feel the inner box or retail packaging is to your product and how you feel it should stand up to abuse during shipment. For example if you are shipping a high-end mp3 player and feel the color box packaging is absolutely integral to the product, damage to the color box as a result of the carton drop test may be considered a test failure.

Adjusting the drop method: For some products which may be considered fragile,or otherwise do not seem suitable for standard carton drop testing, you may adjust the drop method to only dropping on the six sides (eliminating the corner and edges)

NOTE: The intent of the test is not only to determine if poor treatment of the carton during shipping will result in damaged product, but also to determine if the supplier/factory has modified the pckaging method in any way or if the shipment perhaps contains sub-standard packaging materials. For example if you have performed the carton drops test on 3 previous shipments and experienced relatively no damage to the item orpackaging, and then find during the current shipment there is major damage to the interior packaging (retail box), this may indicate that the some apect of the packaging has changed.

drop test

From InTouch Services - intouch-quality.com