Transportation Vibration Testing is the process of determining the ability of the shipping packages to protect the goods contained during the normal distribution cycle. 4D Testing performs a variety of vibration testing machines and procedures to replicate the vibrations that shipping packages experience in the real world and determine the viability of shipping goods without damage. Packaging fatigue and failure happen quickly.
Vibration testing replicates vibration that occurs in the real world to your product and/or packages in order to witness the effects and identify weaknesses. Vibration occurs in all forms of transportation and at varying levels of intensity, even for items that mount into vehicles. Vibration is complex and can excite the natural frequencies of a product causing fatigue or potential failure. The protective packaging systems cushioning also has a natural frequency. If the natural frequency of the product and the package are the same, damage can be the result. If a product is going to be mounted onto a vehicle, the same principle applies.
Measuring the resonance of the package system will help determine the ability of the package to dampen the vibration amplitude at the critical frequencies of the product. If a heavy item is on a mattress inside a vehicle, bumps could either be absorbed or the recoil could cause a high bounce resulting in high G’s, if it were to bounce off the mattress or into the wall of the shipper. We can witness how a product responds to known vibration and repetitive shock situations, thus helping you see what the protective package needs to accomplish.
Vibration Testing Video
Watch our video. This is the Steel Spring Truck Vibration Profile, 4 hours of this test will simulate a truck traveling across the country. This can be abrasive and structurally compromising to a product. Stacking products in the transit container will subject it to another form of compromise; crushing under transportation vibration. Here we simulate mixed commodities on top of a packaged product during travel, the effects can be detrimental.
Common Vibration Testing
We can provide the most common vibration tests for packaging consumer goods, plus others as defined by the recognized industry standards.
- Random Vibration Testing: It is performed to examine the response of a device under test (DUT) to a defined vibration environment. The measured response may be the ability to function in the vibration environment, fatigue life, resonant frequencies, or squeak and rattle sound output (NVH).
- Sine Vibration Testing: This applies a single frequency to a test item and selectively excites resonant structures within the device. In a swept sine test a vibration sine tone is ramped up and down through a range of frequencies and for a specified rate and duration.
- Mixed-Mode Vibration Testing: Mixed-mode testing is a combination of sine and random vibrations performed simultaneously to simulate sources where both modes are present. Mixed-mode testing has been shown to better simulate a real-world environment than sine or random vibration separately.
4D Testing Solutions offers extensive vibration testing services that are administered to meet vibration qualification and safety compliance requirements. Our vibration capabilities test for structural integrity, resonance search and dwell, shock, drop and tumble, and seismic testing.