Package testing is a crucial part of the industrial packaging business. Package testing is used to inspect a variety of aspects of industrial packaging products and it ensures the best packaging possible for customers. “Package testing” is sort of a catch all term for testing at any level of the packing process, and could refer to testing of packaging materials, shipping containers, packaging components, etc. Package testing is meant to test the efficacy of packaging products for their intended uses. Making sure that your packaging has undergone the proper testing will save you trouble and ease your mind.
ASTM Testing
ASTM testing is done by ASTM International. ASTM International is a not-for-profit organization that aims to set in place a set of standards for the quality of materials, products, systems, and services: all crucial components of almost any business. ASTM does not only exist for customer quality assurance, but exists to provide information to producers, users, consumers, the government, or anyone who wants to know that they are using a good quality product, material, service, or system. ASTM operates in over 140 countries and they develop the technical documents needed to prove the legitimacy of the products they test, i.e. their standards.
ISTA Testing
ISTA stands for International Safe Transit Association. ISTA testing is very similar to ASTM testing in that its main intent is to ensure that every product that a producer producers will be up to the level of standards that a customer expects. The ISTA has two types of tests: performance tests and development tests. Performance tests result in either a passing or failing grade and are used to make certain that a packaged product will be able to survive normal shipment. A development test, however, does not test whether or not packaging can do its job, but how it does its job compared to competitors. A development test takes into account the relative performance of similar designs from different suppliers.
Making sure that your packaging is ASTM and ISTA tested is paramount to any successful packaging business. These rules and standards were put into place to protect every member of the supply chain and should be respected for the great service that they provide to producers and consumers alike.
