Durability of Corrugated Fiberboard Container for Fruit and Vegetables by Vibration Fatigue at Simulated Transportation Environment

The compression strength of corrugated fiberboard container for packaging the agricultural products rapidly decreases because of various environmental conditions during distribution of unitized products. Among various environmental conditions, the main factors affecting the compression strength of corrugated fiberboard are absorption of moisture, long-term accumulative load, and fatigue caused by shock and vibration. An estimated rate of damage for fruit during distribution is about from 30 to 40 percent owing to the shock and vibration. This study was carried out to characterize the durability of corrugated fiberboard container for packaging the fruit and vegetables under simulated transportation environment. The vibration test system was constructed to simulate the land transportation using truck. After the package with corrugated fiberboard container was vibrated by vibration test system at various experimental conditions, the compression test for the package was performed. The compression strength of corrugated fiberboard container decreased with loading weight and vibrating time. The multiple nonlinear regression equation for predicting the decreasing rate of compression strength of corrugated fiberboard containers were developed using four independent variables such as input acceleration level, input frequency, loading weight and vibrating time. The influence of loading weight on the decreasing rate of corrugated fiberboard container was larger than other variables.