Estimation of the compression strength of corrugated fibreboard boxes and its application to box design using a personal computer

Many papers have been published on the compression strength of corrugated fibreboard boxes, using such formulae as Kellicut's equation and McKee's equation for the calculation. These equations, however, require known values of the strength of linerboard or corrugated fibreboard, they do not include the influence of moisture content and they are inadequate in the case of wrap-around boxes. The present author measured the mechanical properties of a large number of fibreboard boxes, and has derived a statistical formula useful for estimating the compression strength of a box based on its specifications — grade of corrugated fibreboard, size of box, type of box, printed area and moisture content. The calculation gives fairly good agreement with experimental results. The estimation technique has further been converted into a personal computer program, which renders the design of corrugated fibreboard boxes an easier task.