Strength of boxes constructed of corrugated board

Anna Buelow <anna.buelow [at] nationalarchives__gsi__gov__uk> writes

>Does anyone have experience with specifying minimum stacking
>strength of boxes made of corrugated board? I understand the most
>common test used today is the edge-crush test (ECT), possibly
>together with the Mullen test, but I have not seen this
>specification used within an archive/library context and would like
>to know if someone has used these specifications in order to achieve
>a minimum standard for (stacking) strength.

In the course of designing the new Newspaper Storage Building for
the British Library, we needed to specify the strength of boxes for
storing bound volumes of newspapers--these are very large volumes
and very heavy, so it was important that the boxes should have
adequate crush resistance.  We knew the average weight of volumes of
different sizes, and we knew the maximum stack height we would use,
so we could work out the maximum likely load on the box at the
bottom of the stack.  We then had prototype boxes of different sizes
and constructions made up and crush tested for us by Smurfit Kappa
in Northampton

    <URL:http://www.smurfitkappa.co.uk>

They advised us to use a safety factor of 6, so we were able to
specify the appropriate construction and materials for each size of
box.

Dr Barry Knight
Head of Conservation Research
The British Library
96 Euston Road
London NW1 2DB
+44 20 7412 7229
Fax: +44 20 7412 7658


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 26:1
                  Distributed: Thursday, May 24, 2012
                        Message Id: cdl-26-1-002
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