MEMBER'S QUESTION:

We have a customer that is currently using a 32 ECT RSC and would like to transition to an HSC for cost savings.  They are under the impression that they will need to upgrade the board construction to maintain the same performance.  Do you have any ideas, data, etc. that does or does not support that theory?

 

Thank you for your help,

 

ASKRALPH! RESPONDS:

 

Now that’s a great question.  The simple answer is that the compression strength of a corrugated box is a product of the ECT strength in the side walls and the flexural stiffness of the vertical panels.  The flaps on a corrugated box are “relatively” useless as far as box performance goes.  Flexural stiffness can be measured, but is highly dependent on the caliper of the combined board.

 

So as long as the dimensions of the box and ECT strength from the combined components do not change than there should not be a performance difference between a RSC and HSC.

 

My source for this information is George Maltenfort’s two books: Corrugated Shipping Containers and Performance and Evaluation of Shipping Containers.  I can send you a pdf of a few pages, but they are rather technical in nature with an engineering perspective.  And, we can always sent the two designs out to an independent lab for evaluation.