## 1 Introduction  
Physical events such as vibration are generated by vehicles and handling equipment during distribution in different kinds of temperature conditions. Therefore, packaging has a particular importance in avoiding or dampening those vibration stresses, which can affect the integrity of packaging and its protective mechanism, as well as product properties. Furthermore, sensitive products like electrical or medical devices, or porcelain and glass products, require a thorough and professional implementation of the packaging material used in package-design processes. One of the most important aims of this process is to find cost-effective materials that offer enough protection of the product against the hazards of supply chains. Cushioning materials account for the balance between product ruggedness and distribution hazards. The role of the materials is to absorb the energy of impact shock or the dynamic oscillation of vibration. Generally, the appropriate material and placement of cushioning material used in a packaging system within a container or parcel requires a necessary isolation between the packaged item (Figure 1). M\({}_{1}\) is the critical element of the product (M\({}_{2}\)) that can be damaged easily under impact loading. This component should be an important focus during the package-design process. The primary goal of the container (M\({}_{3}\)) is to store and hold together the product and inner packaging during the distribution. The secondary goal of the container is to absorb the kinetic energy of impacts during transportation, but this is neglected in the package-design process [1]. The protection element in the packaging system, which is known as a package cushion, usually is constructed using plastic foams [2, 3]. The packaging material usually used for cushioning is a lightweight,inexpensive material that has high strength-to-weight and stiffness-to-weight ratios, and has favorable cushioning characteristics and vibration transmissibility. These materials, usually plastic foam or paper packaging, have been widely applied in secondary (master) and tertiary (transportation) packaging to protect products such as medical or electronic devices and instruments, or fragile products [4; 5; 6]. In the design of protective cushions for packaged-product systems, the most widely accepted method for the development of optimized systems is the Six-Step method, which includes the following steps [7]:  
1. Define the shipping environment The damage potential must be evaluated and quantified based on recording the real shipping environment during the transportation of a test package, or on an estimation. 2. Define product fragility During this step, the natural ability of the product to withstand shocks and vibrations from the transportation environment should be quantified. 3. Improve the robustness of the product In some cases, the packaged-product system can be made more economical through a redesign to increase the robustness of the product, which can reduce packaging costs. 4. Evaluate the performance of cushioning material For optimal packaging design, the vibration transmissibility and shock attenuation of the cushion material must be considered. Transmissibility amplification/attenuation plots and cushion curves can be developed and applied to acquire this information. 5. Packaging design In this step, all previously collected information about the shipping environment, product, and cushioning material are used to create a packaging design. 6. Test and validate the packaged-product system The prototype packaged-product system is tested to ensure that all design goals were achieved. This technique takes into the consideration the requirements of cushioning material for protection from shocks and vibration resonance. During this process, different aspects are considered by packaging professionals.