The effect of compression of enclosed air on the cushioning properties of corrugated fibreboard

✍ Scribed by Prabakaran Naganathan; Jimin He; Jim Kirkpatrick

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 158 KB
• Volume: 12
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0894-3214
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1522(199903/04)12:2<81::aid-pts456>3.0.co;2-7

✦ Synopsis

This work showed that the shock-absorbing properties of corrugated ®breboard are dependent on the size of the cushion even when the static loading of the impacting product on the cushion is kept a constant. At least part of this phenomenon was found to be due to the effect of the air enclosed within the ¯utes of ®breboard cushions. During the dynamic compression of ®breboard pads there is a build-up of air pressure within the cushion, which improves its cushioning performance. The greater ease with which air can escape smaller ®breboard cushions, leads to differences in their shock-absorbing behaviour compared with larger cushions. Suggestions are made on how the design of ®breboard pads can be modi®ed to increase the build-up of air pressure within the ¯utes and improve the ef®ciency of the cushion. For comparison, expanded polyethylene foam was also examined and its shock absorbing properties were found to be largely independent of cushion size for constant static-loading impacts.