FedEx: part 2. We are leaving parcels for money: FedEx packaging lab

FedEx - the largest shipping company in the world - can deliver almost anything to 22 countries. Anything, including ... satellites ?!
(Be careful, a lot of photos!)

Yesterday, we got to know how the FedEx World Package Sorting Center works. Today we consider the other side of the issue - the reliability of the packaging.

Of course, the company does not deliver huge communication satellites, but in recent months it has gained many customers (specific organizations are not called) who need to send CubeSats micro-satellites, small devices that NASA periodically sends into space as part of its countless experiments:
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The challenge for FedEx is how to pack them for delivery within the planet. It took the FedEx packaging lab to work. Over the years, FedEx has tried countless packaging options to ensure its resistance to all the tests that a package may encounter while traveling from point A to point B with a truck or plane, and possibly both at once. This spring, the company opened a large packaging testing laboratory in Memphis, providing space for all the necessary experiments.

Today we will visit this laboratory, where test engineer David Nelson will explain how the logistics giant exposes parcels to various mockeries (of course, in a controlled environment). Here, the premise is dropped again and again, compressed, subjected to vibration, as well as low and high temperatures.

Micro satellites, however, were by their nature too different from everything FedEx had dealt with before. “It was something completely new,” explains Nelson. “We started scratching the back of the head. The satellites were too fragile and too expensive. ”When Nelson and his team realized that in this case the satellites are relatively small, they became confident that they could find a solution. And perhaps that is why the researchers who were required to deliver these satellites turned to FedEx. They said, “We know how to build a rocket, but we don’t understand a damn thing in the package.” To which Nelson replied to them, “We don’t know a damn thing about missiles, but the packaging is our fad!”

For free

The FedEx packaging lab has two main goals. The first is to test materials to ensure that any type of packaging used by FedEx shows itself well during transport and reliably protects any content inside it. The second goal is to test the loads themselves, to check how they behave under the influence of serious vibrations, extreme temperatures and high altitude. “Our goal is to simulate any part of the actual delivery process,” says Mickey Rainey, the lab manager.

The secret of the packaging laboratory is that it provides its services to any FedEx customer without charging for it. Do you have a package to check? The company will do it for free, although at some point the company may still begin to charge for it.

In addition, laboratory engineers can help any client develop a special packaging design for their goods — also for free. For example, says Nelson, a well-known company that produces electric guitars, recently asked the laboratory to develop packaging that can be used to transport all models of electric guitars produced by the company, each of which has a slightly different shape. With the same packaging company will be easier to scale without having to deal with many different boxes. Using fewer packages allows companies to significantly reduce costs:



For the guitar company, as well as for other companies, FedEx engineers developed a prototype, and then implemented it in the form of blueprints so that you could hire someone to make the packaging itself. Only a few FedEx customers understand that in a given situation, FedEx does all this at a loss in order to preserve and consolidate strong partnerships with its customers. “They can't believe that we don’t invoice for payment at the end of the process,” says Reini.

Drop them again and again

Many FedEx customers send their packages to the packaging testing lab without any warning. Every day, new packages arrive at the laboratory, where one in four engineers will soon be able to handle them. According to Rainey, 4,500 parcels go through the lab a year, which means that an engineer needs to test at least 25 a day to do his job.

As soon as the parcel arrives, it is time to test its strength and it all starts with the fact that the parcel is dropped again and again to see how the packaging behaves. One of the questions here is whether the package is intended to be shipped domestically or abroad. This is important because the international package is subject to much more shocks during delivery. Domestic shipments we drop 10 times, and international shipments - 20:





The drop test is designed to assess the strength of each side of the package of a parcel, despite the fact that during the delivery the parcel is unlikely to actually drop 10 times, and even more so 20. Falls are carried out by a special device that raises the parcel to a certain height, and then sharply dropping it down, which allows you to check every corner of the parcel, every face and every plane. When I watched two technicians conduct a drop test, it was immediately clear that the package would not pass it, since after a couple of strokes, the packaging began to open around the edges.

The purpose of the test is to check whether it is wrapped or not. If the package passes the test, the company reports this to the customer. If not, the responsible engineer makes recommendations on how the packaging can be improved to pass the test in the future.

Compression and vibration

The next big test is testing how the packages withstand pressure. To do this, the company uses a press that simulates the load that the parcel will experience when another load is placed on top of it. If the parcel fails, the engineers again give their advice:





Then the parcels are subjected to vibrations. To do this, they are placed on a vibration table and the engineer selects a test profile — an imitation of movement in a truck or on an airplane:



The loads that a parcel is subjected to with different modes of transportation are very different. For internal shipments, the test takes 45 minutes: 15 minutes to simulate delivery by truck, then 15 minutes by plane, then again 15 minutes by truck. For international shipments, the test time is doubled.

For large parcels, another test is also used: the parcel is placed on an inclined plane and rolled along it. Large loads, such as racks with paint cans, are subjected to similar loads during transportation. If you drop such a rack, the banks may break or something else worse may happen. “No one will buy paint in broken cans,” explains Nelson:

Temperature and height

The last types of tests that are being subjected to packaging in laboratories are tests for aggressive media - too hot, too cold, too wet, and also tests for height.

Temperature tests are extremely important. In winter, plastic may become brittle, and liquids may freeze. High humidity is also a big problem, because the box may get wet. Tests check all these situations.
Cabinet for temperature tests:



Similarly, a height test checks how the boxes will behave when transported by truck at an altitude of up to 3 km - in the Rocky Mountains, this is not uncommon. For example, there were cases when packages of chips exploded at such heights. Covers on cans with paints can be slightly opened. In the best case, the loss will only be transported cargo. At worst, FedEx equipment can be damaged, making it difficult for everyone to deliver.

Height simulation camera:

Check speed

Considering how many parcels are being checked, FedEx engineers cannot afford to spend too much time on each, because FedEx is committed to returning packages to customers as quickly as possible. FedEx's goal is to check the package in 4 days.

Real time checking is much less. A typical small package takes about an hour to conduct tests, including examining it, photographing it, and including the results in the FedEx database. However, large parcels may require 4 to 8 hours for testing. Work on the development of the original packaging design takes more time, from 2 to 3 weeks of the engineer.

Nelson likes his work. While drivers delivering FedEx packages are often blamed for damage and rough handling of packages, for Nelson, on the contrary, it’s part of the job. There are only 10 people in the company who are allowed to drop parcels, and we even get paid for it!

PS The first part of the article: FedEx: part 1. Excursion to the global center for sorting packages FedEx .