Technical Notes: Overhang and Pallet Gap Effects on the Performance of Corrugated Fiberboard Boxes
Experiments were carried out to determine the effect of overhang and pallet gap size on the ultimate vertical compression strength of corrugated fiberboard boxes. The experiments were set up to simulate real forces that packages containing fresh produce encounter during transportation and storage. It was found that compression strength decreased exponentially with pallet gap size. Compression strength decreased with an increase in overhang, but not exponentially. There was a large reduction in compression strength for small overhang (10 mm) increasing overhang afterwards and decreased compression strength almost linearly. The results of this study have considerable relevance to the ultimate performance of corrugated fiberboard boxes containing horticultural products. The choice of using gapped pallets and overhang of boxes has to be made based on space efficiency versus loss of stacking strength.