page_title: Package testing
section_title: Conditioning, testing atmosphere
hierarchical_section_title: Package testing / Conditioning, testing atmosphere
caption_attribution_description: English: Temperature and humidity chamber to simulate transport, warehouse environments, and shelf life conditions of a packaged product.
context_page_description: Package testing or packaging testing involves the measurement of a characteristic or property involved with packaging. This includes packaging materials, packaging components, primary packages, shipping containers, and unit loads, as well as the associated processes.
  Testing measures the effects and interactions of the levels of packaging, the package contents, external forces, and end-use.
  It can involve controlled laboratory experiments, subjective evaluations by people, or field testing. Documentation is important: formal test method, test report, photographs, video, etc.
  Testing can be a qualitative or quantitative procedure. Package testing is often a physical test. With some types of packaging such as food and pharmaceuticals, chemical tests are conducted to determine suitability of food contact materials. Testing programs range from simple tests with little replication to more thorough experimental designs.
  Package testing can extend for the full life cycle. Packages can be tested for their ability to be recycled and their ability to degrade as surface litter, in a sealed landfill or under composting conditions.
context_section_description: The environmental conditions of testing are critical.  The measured performance of many packages is affected by the conditioning and testing atmospheres.  For example, paper based products are strongly affected by their moisture content:  Relative humidity needs to be controlled.  Plastic products are often strongly affected by temperature.
  Conditions of 23 °C (73.4 °F) and 50% relative humidity are common but other standard testing conditions are also published in material and package test standards. Engineering tolerances for the conditions are also specified.  Often the package is conditioned to the specified environment and tested under those conditions.  This can be in a conditioned room or in a chamber enclosing the test.  With some testing, the package is conditioned to a specified environment, then is removed to ambient conditions and quickly tested.  The test report needs to state the actual conditions used.
  Engineers have found it important to know the effects of the full range of expected conditions on package performance.  This can be through investigating published technical literature, obtaining supplier documentation, or by conducting controlled tests at diverse conditions.
caption: Environmental chamber to simulate temperatures and humidities encountered by packages
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