In supply chains, shortages of goods can occur, defined as cargo damage caused by natural and extraordinary losses as well as the aging of packaged goods. These are an inevitable element of any business activity and result from the imperfections of technical, economic, and organizational solutions. The indicative value of cargo damage in transport, according to European data, is estimated at at least 1.0% of production value.
Among the factors influencing the scale of cargo damage occurring in transport, great importance is attributed to improper packaging and the stresses affecting loads during transit. These factors account for approximately half of the responsibility for the losses incurred, and for this reason, the issue of testing the resistance of transport packaging to mechanical stresses occurring in transport takes on particular significance.
A review of domestic literature indicates that the subject of mechanical stresses in transport is treated marginally, and most articles are devoted to issues of delivery acceleration and profitability. Also, in domestic standardization regarding transport packaging, there has been chaos associated with the hasty implementation of new European and international standards. An example of this can be seen in the changes in the section “complete, filled transport packages,” where out of a package of 13 European standards implemented in 2002 into national standards (PN – EN), 4 standards were already withdrawn in 2003 and replaced by international standards (PN – EN ISO). Such an amendment caused a change in standard numbers and the content of subsequent revised editions of international ISO standards. In this article, the problem of mechanical stresses affecting transport packaging has been narrowed down only to cardboard boxes and road and rail transport. Currently, the production of corrugated and solid board shows the highest growth dynamics among all packaging materials, and the greatest concentration of mechanical stresses occurs mainly as a result of using road and rail transport.
Road transport is the most widely used means of transport for moving goods in logistics supply chains. Its greatest advantage is the ability to perform door-to-door transport without time-consuming and costly transshipment operations. However, a disadvantage of this delivery system is the poor technical condition of roads, which has a direct impact on the increase in mechanical stresses affecting transported goods. The main stresses occurring are the impact of constant low-frequency vibrations supported by the pressure force of the load resulting from the stacking height used.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 2/2004.