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Thursday, 23 of February of 2012

Category » Distribution Simulation

DDL President, Patrick Nolan will be speaking at the FMA Progressive Packaging & Sustainability Congress in Chicago

Patrick Nolan, DDL President, will be presenting on the topic of sustainable packaging during this year’s FMA Progressive Packaging and Sustainability Congress Conference.

DDL RPDG, 2011 FMA Progressive Packaging and Sustainability Congress, ChicagoPerhaps the rapid industrial growth of countries such as India and China has heightened the awareness of the environmental impact of industrialization. Environmental activism is a logical response to global industrialization and external pressure (the ‘green movement’) is being applied to businesses to make sustainability a significant parameter, in designing packaging. Take the Wal-Mart scorecard, for example, and other programs that are forcing suppliers to use more ‘sustainable’ packaging. This is all well and good but through the ‘sustainable’ packaging process, a few questions arise;

  • How can this be evaluated equitably in the marketplace?
  • Where are the standards against which packaging can be measured and examined to determine how well you are meeting a goal of “sustainable” packaging?
  • Is sustainable packaging a continuum or a finite achievement?

Nolan’s presentation will cover a general overview of sustainability, the concepts of cradle to grave and cradle to cradle as well as the unintended consequences that can arise during the source reduction process of responsible packaging.

Nolan will also touch on what the industry bodies, such as ASTM, Sustainable Packaging Coalition and European Bioplastics are doing.

The Progressive Packaging and Sustainability is put on in partnership with the FMA Congresses.

The FMA Progressive Packaging Sustainability Congress will take place on November 9-11, 2011 in Chicago, IL.

To learn more about how DDL can help you with your sustainable packaging initiatives and responsible package design, visit our website or contact us to see how we can help.

DDL Announces the Development of the Responsible Packaging Development Group Aimed at Companies Developing Sustainable Packaging

DDL recently announced the expansion of their testing capabilities with the addition of sustainable package testing and their newly formed Responsible Packaging Development Group.

“We can all see that the industry is shifting to towards a ‘responsible’ packaging trend,” DDL President, Patrick Nolan, said.  “DDL is responding to this shift with the addition of our Responsible Packaging Development Group designed to assist companies in the steps that need to be taken in achieving your desired level of sustainability.”

Sustainable Packaging, DDL, Responsible Packaging Development GroupDDL, known in the industry for their expertise in medical device package testing, has been conducting distribution simulation testing on packages for more than 20 years.  DDL’s tenured engineers have a strong understanding of the distribution environment and the conditions that a package goes through during the transportation process.

“A number of companies understand the importance of designing sustainable packaging; however, many fail to consider the potential unintended consequences that could arise if the package is not tested to ensure the environment it is exposed to is allowing the new package design to effectively protect the product,” Nolan said.  “Our experience with distribution simulation testing will help ensure that you’re new sustainable package is still protecting your product as originally intended.”

DDL’s Responsible Packaging Development Group can assist companies in the following ways;

  • Compliance to ISO packaging and environmental standard
  • Initial Package Design with optimization in mind
  • Material selection for optimal source reduction
  • Package design testing for evaluation of optimization of material strength and performance
  • Package design testing for confirmation of effective cost reduction
  • Reduce unintended consequence of source reduction

What recent changes have you seen companies make in regards to designing responsible packaging in line with their sustainability initiatives?

Focused Simulation of Drop and Impact Events

Written by DDL Project Manager, Andrew Rothe. Andrew attended this year’s Packaging Jamboree at UW Stout and wrote this recap of Bryan Williams of Lansmont Corporation’s presentation on Focused Simulation of Drop and Impact Events.

Shake, rattle and drop, that’s our business.  But has anyone wondered how we can bring the distribution system off the roads, rails, and skies?  One way to accomplish this is the use a Lansmont Saver which was the topic of Bryan Williams lecture at this past week’s Packaging Jamboree at University of Wisconsin Stout.

Bryan started by passing a verity of savors around the room.  He explained that a savor is used to pick up shock events that would be felt in any distribution testing cycle.  Along with these more advanced savors could also tell us at what altitude the shock was felt, the exact quarantines of that impact, and even what the temperature and humidity was.

Once all this data is collected it can be uploaded to a computer and a graph will depict the cycle.  This data can then be used for a few things.  One and perhaps the most obvious is to analyze the trek that the savor had just got back from.  Filtering through all this information, which could be as high as 90 days of collected information, and it maybe decide this is not the best path for our trucks to go on.  Or we need to add more support the package.  The other thing this information can be used for is recreating the trek.  This can be done by uploading the data to a vibration table which can simulate each impact or a time stamp and test for only a small interval of a journey.

Bryan pointed out that Lansmont lived in a closed loop cycle.  They must measure, test, monitor and then start again by measuring.  It is a continues process and to stay ahead they must always be collecting data and evolving their products.

The saver by Lansmont is an efficient device that helps our industry better itself by creating real life simulations.  With the information it produces we can better predict what we are up against and create safer packages.

DDL’s Scott Levy Talking Distribution Simulation Testing Standards and Test Methodologies

DDL Packaging Engineer Scott Levy, discusses some of the current standards in relation to distribution simulation testing. Scott explains the importance of understanding the standards, as well as how future changes may affect medical device manufacturers bringing new products to market.

2010 Healthcare Packaging Conference & Workshops

We are happy to announce that we will be represented by both Scott Levy, our lead packaging engineer at DDL and Anthony Alleva, the Technical Services Manager at TCP Reliable at this year’s upcoming Healthcare Packaging Conference & Workshop in Princeton, New Jersey.

Scott will be presenting on Distribution Simulation Geared Towards Medical Device Manufacturers and Anthony will be presenting on the importance of Phase Change Materials in Temperature Controlled Package Design.

Healthcare Packaging Conference & Workshops, DDL, TCP Reliable

This year’s event will focus on pharmaceutical packaging and medical device packaging, the  event will be divided into a morning general session and afternoon breakout workshops. The day will cover issues of interest for pharmaceutical, medical device, biologics and nutraceutical products packagers.

Here is some other important information about this year’s show:

Registration Fee: $695
Registration Fee for Packagers: $495

Who Should Attend:

  • packaging decision-makers in the pharmaceutical, medical device, and healthcare industries
  • packaging engineers
  • plant managers
  • validation and regulation officials
  • package designers
  • security/quality control professionals
  • machinery and materials suppliers

Click here to register for the 2010 Healthcare Packaging Conference & Workshops

DDL and TCP Reliable are excited with our involvement at this year’s show and we look forward to providing attendees with valuable information that affects package and product integrity within the healthcare packaging industry.

See you at the show!

DDL's Scott Levy will be Speaking on "Distribution Simulation Testing" at MD&M Minneapolis

MD&M Minneapolis starts this week and our own Scott Levy will be kicking off the conference with a presentation on “Distribution Simulation Testing.”

Distribution Simulation is a uniform way of evaluating shipping units through the use of laboratory equipment that subjects the packaging system to specific hazards that may occur within the anticipated distribution environment. Understanding the methodologies behind the processes is vital for medical device manufacturers to get their product to market.


Scott’s presentation will focus on, “Distribution Simulation Testing”, outlining key activities designed to educate those in the medical device package testing industry on the importance of distribution simulation and the current industry trends.

Key takeaways attendees can hope to learn include:
  • An explanation of the most common methodologies being utilized by medical device manufacturers including ASTM and ISTA procedures.
  • An Analysis of the benefits and drawbacks of certain methodologies and valid alternative solutions.
  • Detailed steps that need to be considered when designing your shipper for distribution simulation and a review of the problematic scenarios that may arise during the process.
A goal of ours at DDL Inc. is to educate our customers on the importance of distribution simulation testing, through effective, industry proven methodologies, and to quickly move them through the compliance stage on the way to market.

If you will be in Minneapolis this week for the show, come check out Scott’s presentation and make sure to stop by our booth to say hi.