Abstract
THE United States Forest Products Laboratory has already undertaken detailed scientific and engineering tests on wood boxes and crates. Fibre-board boxes and other shipping containers are now to be subjected to similar tests, according to Science Service, of Washington, D.C. These latter now constitute business amounting to 165,000,000 dollars in the United States. It is said that these fibre boxes and containers are on a largely empirical basis, and the unavoidable losses are as yet unknown. The investigation will take place in the pulp and paper section of the Laboratory, since fibre box paper is largely made from waste, such as newsprint, in combination with new pulp. The strength tests of the paper will be carried out with the use of highly accurate scientific instruments. These include a Tuckerman optical strain gauge which, under rigidly controlled atmospheric humidity conditions, tells the degree of stiffness in small strips of paper. A tiny mirror, rotating as the paper is stretched, throws a beam of light on a small scale which indicates the amount of stretch. Strength formulae so derived will be correlated with others obtained from tests on the strength of finished fibre boards, as well as others calculated from tests of completed boxes. A circular rotating drum will be used for tests on completed boxes, both full and empty; the drum when revolved jolts, drops, and slides boxes round in a fashion similar to the treatment they are subjected to in transit by rail, ship or lorry.
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Tests on Wood Boxes and Crates. Nature 137, 812 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137812c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/137812c0