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.

Responding to Anna Buelow's request concerning storage boxes one
might review the information in my article on Solander boxes (Museum
Management and Curatorship (1993) v.12) and a more accessible
article by Gianlorenzo Pignatti, "Boxes for the Housing and
Protection of Books: Observations on their History and Development"
in the eConservation Magazine, 2012, at

    <URL:http://www.e-conservationline.com/content/view/1054>

Pignatti has updated some information and added much to the subject.
Also see an more limited testing of boxes that goes beyond the
results I published in 1993 by Andrea Wise, Caitlin Granowski and
Belinda Gourley, "Out of the box: measuring microclimates in
Australian-made Solander boxes" available free at,

    <URL:http://nga.gov.au/conservation/Download/OutOfTheBox.pdf>

Niccolo Caldararo, Ph.D.
Director and Chief Conservator
Conservation Art Service


                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 26:2
                  Distributed: Thursday, May 31, 2012
                        Message Id: cdl-26-2-006
                                  ***