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Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Distribution packaging design often relies on cushion curves to determine required material thickness needed for product protection during shipment. The material thickness chosen based on cushion curves establishes overall package size, a key determiner of logistics costs. Cushion curves are constructed by dropping a mass onto a cushion, and interpreting the resulting shock pulse deceleration. The reported deceleration can be highly influenced by applying a “filter” to the shock pulse, a useful standar d prac - tice that removes unwanted high frequency elements superimposed on top of the basic shock pulse shape. Standard test methods for generating cushion curves generally do not require reporting what filter was used, or whether the filter influenced the resulting cushion curve information. This paper demonstrates quantitatively how shock pulse filtering influences cushion curves and cushion thickness, which in turn affects logistics costs.

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