International Safe Transit Association
Public Video

Laboratory Techniques to Simulate Dunnage Used in the LTL Distribution Environment Webinar


Eric Hiser, Vice President of Standards & Certification, ISTA
Kyle Dunno, Assistant Professor, RIT – Packaging Science Program
Jim Bisha, Manager - Packaging Optimization, Chainalytics LLC
Brennan Lytle, Research Associate, Clemson University

Dunnage materials are widely used in the less than truckload (LTL) shipping environment, due to the wide array of freight handled on a daily basis. While the dunnage is designed to restrict the motion of freight, in doing so, it can sometimes damage the freight as a result of certain events (shocks and vibration hazards) occurring during shipment. The premier transport test standard for simulating general LTL transport is ISTA Procedure 3B. This standard exposes packaged products, both individual and unitized, to different transport hazards commonly experienced by this mode of transport. While the test standard challenges the freight to different laboratory simulated hazards, missing from the standard is the interaction between freight and dunnage material.  It was this identified gap that led to the formation of a workgroup to investigate the interaction during shock and vibration events.  This webinar provides an overview of the workgroups progress towards development of a test method(s) including investigate work conducted at university partners RIT and Clemson.