Estimating Tote Drop Height & Impact Acceleration from a Transportation Recorder

Abstract: Healthcare products are often shipped from a distribution center to a retail store in plastic totes. Previous research on plastic tote distribution at the Healthcare Packaging Consortium has suggested that the use of bubble wrap and air pillows at tote bottom and top, respectively, reduces impact. In addition to the use of bubble wrap and air pillows, monitoring tote handling would also have the potential to reduce distribution damages. A transportation recorder was used to aid this study. Equations were developed from the drop test data to estimate drop height and impact acceleration at tote bottom from impact acceleration obtained from the recorder