The Fibre Box Association’s (FBA’s) Technical Committee, comprised of top engineers in the corrugated industry, is updating design recommendations for corrugated boxes used or stored in certain environmental conditions, based on recent research.
Specifically, laboratory tests were conducted to determine the effects of environmental moisture on box compression strength. Since high-humidity environments add moisture to corrugated, which is made of paper, it is important to consider the effect when designing a box that will encounter these conditions. The completed research provides new information detailing the relative effect that a range of humidity levels has on the box’s moisture content and its top-to-bottom compression strength.
Industry technology, paper stocks and substrates have changed substantially since research in this area was last conducted in the 1980s and 1990s. The FBA’s members identified the Relative Humidity guideline as a priority for review and funded the research. Indeed, the testing showed that today’s average corrugated box is slightly more robust than the boxes of yesteryear – and an update can be made to the Relative Humidity multiplier recommendations in the Fiber Box Handbook, reflecting the properties of modern substrates.
Data that is used to aid box design is published in the FBA’s Fiber Box Handbook, an industry “Bible” for over 40 years. The handbook was last updated in the 2015, with the next edition due in 2025. In the meantime, you can learn more about the new guidance by reaching out to the association.
