My company is looking to produce foil/laminate packettes to be distributed through magazines as samples. Where can I find some sort of criteria or guidelines for burst strength on these packettes? For our normal sampling (handouts, or POP at retail), we use a minimum of 1000 PSI in the Parallel Platen Pressure Test, held at a minimum of six seconds. Magazines, however, could be stacked on top of each other for an extended period of time or even bound and dropped. My next step is to contact suppliers and ask if they have ever produced items like this for customers. If I get lucky, I’ll have a bit of a reference point. Do you have any idea where else I can look for this sort of information? @ Ask The Experts

Corey Hensel
DDL Inc.
Director of Operations
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Corey Hensel has more than 14 years of experience in the package and product testing industry. As Director of Operations, he is responsible for DDL’s processes and operational efficiency across all three of DDL’s facilities. He is also responsible for ensuring all tests are performed in accordance with the most current industry standards and meets the quality standards established through DDL’s ISO 9001 certification. Hensel is Chair of the ASTM D10.23 committee, a member of the Institute of Packaging Professionals (IOPP) and TAPPI.

Package Testing Q&A

My company is looking to produce foil/laminate packettes to be distributed through magazines as samples. Where can I find some sort of criteria or guidelines for burst strength on these packettes? For our normal sampling (handouts, or POP at retail), we use a minimum of 1000 PSI in the Parallel Platen Pressure Test, held at a minimum of six seconds. Magazines, however, could be stacked on top of each other for an extended period of time or even bound and dropped. My next step is to contact suppliers and ask if they have ever produced items like this for customers. If I get lucky, I’ll have a bit of a reference point. Do you have any idea where else I can look for this sort of information?

Asked July 17th, 2009

Seal strength and burst strength values are performance-based requirements, that is, the minimum burst or seal strength should be whatever required to meet your real world experience and required performance standard. That said, in an analytical world you would have to quantify the maximum force you would expect to be placed on your seals during their life cycle—distribution, handling (bundling, dropping), shipping, point of use, etc. I suspect that this is not practical for you.

I cannot comment if your current burst strength specification is reasonable or sufficient for your magazine application. As pouches or sachets typically have destructive or nonpeelable seals, my gut reaction is that these are reasonably sufficiently strong seals when placed in a dynamic environment.

For sterile medical packaging, where maintaining seal integrity throughout the product or package shelf life is imperative, there is a performance-based test within ASTM D 4169, “Performance Testing of Shipping Containers and Systems” (www.astm.org to buy standard) to simulate a high altitude, low pressure situation (air shipment) that could cause nonporous packages to experience a seal breach. That is when the pressure outside the package is lower than the atmospheric pressure inside (packages sealed at sea level or a few thousand feet above sea level, which then experience high altitudes during air travel), the package will blow or puff up, stressing the seals and film.

Again, this is not a specification-driven test, but rather, a performance-based test, which may provide some increased confidence on the seal strength of your pouch package during distribution and shipping.

Your thoughts around contacting suppliers for their experience with customers in a similar application makes sense, too.

Corey Hensel, Karen Greene, Pat Nolan

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