Prompted Post #8: Practicing Your Knowledge

After recently learning and blogging about package testing, an idea sparked in my mind for what kind of hands-on work I could do to test my knowledge of the packaging field. I decided to construct a series of packaging tests similar to the ones done in laboratories on a store bought product. Because the product/package is in my possession, it obviously has passed the necessary tests to reach the market. However, performing tests similar to actual packaging tests would give me a better understanding of what it would be like to be a packaging engineer, and how/why certain packages/products respond to tests in the way(s) that they do.

Product being tested

The product I chose to test was a 13.7 oz. Starbucks Frappuccino drink, packaged in a glass bottle.

With my lack of accessibility to actual package testing machines, I was unable to do almost all of the tests that packaging engineers acutally perform on glass bottles. However, being a college student with an active imagination meant I could make do with what I had.

Test	Hypothesis	Effect	Conclusion
Bending Test (using hands)	It will not be bendable	Bottle did not bend. Even with extreme pressure, the material in no way came close to bending.	The material is durable enough to be shipped/handled and receive uneasy contact.
Flame Test (using lighter for 1 minute)	There will be no effect	The glass changed the least bit. It darkened slightly, but is not flammable and did not alter enough to become bendable.	Glass is not flammable, extreme amounts of heat would be necessary for alterations in shape and chemical properties.
Heating/Cooling Test (100 degrees/ 20 degrees)	Heating – drink will turn room temperature, glass will become very hot. Cooling – both package and drink will drop in temperature.	Heating- placed in oven, exploded after 36 minutes, product poured out. Cooling – glass became very cool, as did the product.	Glass is applicable for this type of drink. A coffee Frappuccino is something refrigerated, but not often left in 100 degree temperatures.
Drop Test (2 ft, 5 ft, 8 ft, on concrete)	Glass will break at all heights	4 ft- No breakage or cracking, product remained same. 10 ft- glass shattered 15 ft- unable to test because of previous results ^ (glass would definitely shatter)	Glass, as previously known, is breakable. Secondary and Tertiary packaging must be very protective for shipping and handling. Primary package features should make the avoidance of dropping easy for consumers (handles, grips, etc.)

This experience was very fun and hands-on! It was exciting to see the reaction to high temperatures, and somewhat satisfying shattering a glass bottle from 10 feet up. The results of each test showed me why glass is such a good material for beverage packaging: keeps cold drinks cold and hot drinks hot (to a certain extent), can handle reasonable contact, and although I was unable to test this one, it has outstanding barrier properties.  

Open Post #7: Package Testing - Drop Test

Packaging engineers spend great lengths of time creating, designing, and constructing a package to meet the needs of a specific product, but people often fail to recognize the last step they take before the package can reach the market - package testing. This step is vital in the overall process because it tells the engineers whether or not the package they made works.

My packaging class recently had two guest speakers from the Amway Cosmetics and Skin Care Packaging team come in, and they taught me several things about packaging and especially package testing. Amway is a corporation that owns popular brands relating to home, beauty, and nutrition care; these brands are eSpring, Nutrilite, Artistry, and Legacy of Clean. Because the two women worked as packaging professionals in Artistry, the cosmetics and skin care area, the package testing techniques they talked about were expressed in relation to makeup tubes, bottles, jars, and palettes.

The speakers explained that package testing includes not just the testing of the primary package, but package materials, components, shipping containers, and unit loads. Package testing is generally one of two types: lab testing or consumer testing. Lab testing refers to physical, chemical, and performance testing, food safety approval, research and developmental support, and testing to comply with vendor standards. Consumer testing refers to subjective evaluations by people to test things such as packages with child-resistant or tamper evident features.

drop test

There are 70 standardized laboratory tests that Amway might use on a package, one of the most popular being The Drop Test. This test is pretty self explanatory - the machine drops the package in different positions, heights, etc. to test the effects of certain falls on the package and the product. This machine does not always tests the primary package (package that makes direct contact with the product), but more so the secondary or tertiary package (the package containing the primary package). The women shared a video of their Drop Test Machine, but with my inability to access that, I'm going to instead share a video that I found of a basic drop test machine testing a secondary package.
Click Here To Watch

While watching, I noticed the different trials, alterations with each drop, and noted the surface they dropped it on. These are all key steps in testing whether or not the package that was constructed is suitable for the product it entails. What things did you notice?

Sources Cited
"Classic DROP TEST for Package." Youtube. Youtube, 17 July 2012. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.
"Packaging Testing Services." Packaging Testing Services. Web. March. 2016. 

Prompted Post #7: Contemplating Controversy

Possibly the biggest controversy in the food safety industry in years is the debate on Nanotechnology, specifically related to micro packaging. Texas A&M University engineering team created a thin-coating polymer with food preservation qualities similar to that of glass. The head of the engineering team, Jaime Grunlan, says that it could preserve a carbonated drink's fizz better than anything yet. This molecular material is 70% clay particles and 30% water - so it's basically dirt. This makes the material more eco-friendly than the most recyclable material, plastics, and thousands of times thinner than a single strand of hair. In addition to having the best gas barriers and shelf life, "dirt", is food contact approved....as weird as that may sound. (Fletcher)

So I'm sure you're all wondering, if this material is extremely cheap, sustainable, and effective, how could there possible be a debate on it? The answer to that is what I like to call fear of the unknown. 

To be more clear, the debate is solely because of the danger of public backlash. Many in the food industry "fear the wrath of the consumer, and it's become worse over the last three or four years" says the head of The Department of Food Science at Pennsylvania State University, John Floros. The reason for fearing wrath of consumers is solely because of the consumers' fear of the unknown. Floros says that companies and consumers would work to balance the risks and benefits, but consumers want no risks whatsoever. (Fletcher)

The article that opened the doors to my research about this debate failed to mention what consumers and several companies are so afraid of. What potential hazards are there? The Center for Responsible Nanotechnology was able to give me a means of the top dangers of nanotechnology:

NANOTECH

• Economic disruption from an abundance of cheap products
• Economic oppression from artificially inflated prices
• Personal risk from criminal or terrorist use
• Personal or social risk from abusive restrictions
• Social disruption from new products/lifestyles
• Health risks from unregulated products
• Black market in nanotechnology (increasing other risks)
• Competing nanotechnology programs (increasing other risks)

Below the list was a follow up that I found extremely interesting and helpful: "Some of the dangers described here are existential risks, that is, they may threaten the continued existence of humankind. Others could produce significant disruption but not cause our extinction. A combination of several risks could exacerbate the seriousness of each; any solution must take into account its effect on other risks." ("Nanotechnology: Dangers of...")

With the knowledge I have on this subject, I can solely conclude that the complexity of this debate is because nanotechnology's risks are in no way ordinary and formed because this manufacturing technique is still so foreign to the public. Although major corporations are turning down "clay/dirt", they are still following the advancements in nanotechnology. In the 2012 fiscal year alone, the federal government invested $123.5 million in environmental, health, and safety dimensions of nanotechnology to attempt to push all these potential dangers out of the picture. (Fletcher)

Sources Cited

Fletcher, Jan. "Micro Packaging Could Be the Future." QSR Magazine. QSR Magazine, Aug. 2011. Web. Mar. 2016

"Nanotechnology: Dangers of Molecular Manufacturing." Nanotechnology: Dangers of Molecular Manufacturing. WorldCare. Web. March. 2016. 

Open Post #6: SPI Codes

Ever curios as to what the small triangle with a number inside of it on the bottom of your pop bottle means? Well keep reading and you can find out!

This little impression is called the SPI code - a number that is given to the package depending on what type of plastic it is made of. 

In 1988, with the urging of recyclers around the country, The Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI) established this classification system to help consumers and recyclers properly recycle and dispose of each different type of plastic based on its chemical makeup. The coding system offered a means of identifying the resin content of plastic bottles and containers that are most commonly used by society. Identifying the resin content will give individuals the ability to perform quality control, which will separate them into families of related materials with varying properties that can be engineered to meet the requirements of several applications. Matching the right plastic - with the right properties - to the right application is extremely important in the success of a package and also the product within that package. 

In my Packaging101 course, I learned what type of plastic each SPI code represents and where it can be seen:

SPI

Learning about the SPI codes not only bettered my knowledge of the packaging world, it brought several other benefits: showed me the broadness of the plastics family, taught me the properties of different items that I use on a daily basis, and gave meaning to figures/codes that were previously unknown.

Sources Cited

"Resource Center » The Different Types of Plastic and Their Number Classifications (Codes)." The Different Types of Plastic and Their Number Classifications (Codes). Quality Logo Products, 2016. Web. 

"SPI Resin Identification Code - Guide to Correct Use." Plasticindustry.ord. The Plastics Industry Trade Association, 2015. Web.

Prompted Post 6: Evaluating Sources

plastic planet

I watched the documentary "Plastic Planet" which challenges the trustworthiness of plastics and reveals the truth behind this globally-used packaging material. The beginning of the film focuses on plastic's extreme popularity and the naiveness of people to what makes plastics better than other products and materials. The main character of this documentary, Boot, inspired by his grandfather who worked for the plastics industry, travels the world to learn about how plastic is made, used in the environment, food chain, and ultimately our bodies. According to Boot, 4% of the world's oil supply is used to create the plastics we use, yet the thousands of chemicals to create plastic are guarded as trade and the effects they have on organisms are largely unstudied and unknown. By paying chemists and independent labs to look for certain chemicals coming out of plastic bottles, he discovered something quite noteworthy. Environmentalists, scientists, etc. say that plastic is not the inert, stable material we think it is; plastic breaks down especially when scratched, old or cheaply made. This causes plastics to leach and out very dangerous chemicals, the main one being Bisphenol A (BPA). Why is this bad? Because BPA mimics hormone estrogen - it can cause obesity, cancer, early puberty in girls, and sperm malfunction. Because BPA acts like hormones, you don't need much for them to have major effects. There are horrible amounts of BPA in the blood and urine in people everywhere, but 92.6% of Americans.

These findings definitely don't support the plastics industry, and because plastic is an extremely vital part of the packaging industry, it's the last thing a future packaging professional wants to hear. However, this documentary definitely changed my view on plastic. It's crazy how much humans have plastic in their lives, odds are as you are reading this, you're touching at least three pieces of plastic....at least one of the three being inside of you. However, this just proves that plastic can not be fully removed from our lives. This changed my view on plastic because it opened my eyes to the harmfulness of this material and inspired me to be smart about my use of plastic. Until a better, more safe material can be used to replace plastic packaging of food and drinks, I will attempt to limit my intake of food and drink linked to Bisphenol A. I can do this by looking for bottles that say "BPA free", avoiding scratched plastic bottles, plastic containers that have been heated up, and plastics that have been washed in a dishwasher. This will decrease my chances of consuming BPA and harming my body, all of you should do the same.

First Stone Age, then The Ice Age, so what's next..... The Plastic Age?

Sources Cited 
Plastic Planet. Dir. Werner Boote. Perf. Werner Boote. 2010. Documentary.