HELPFUL HINTS

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Most teachers will probably have done the ‘Egg Drop’ test at some stage or another with students, (Dropping a packaged egg from a distance to see if it breaks). If not, click here to go to ‘Online Lessons’ on our website for an outline of this activity.

Strength testing involves dropping a packaged product from various heights, crushing, stacking items on top of the package, travelling in cars, packed in secondary boxes etc. Market testing simply involves students surveying their target audience. This may be before the design begins – to see what their target audience wants, or after – to see if they like the students design. Market testing should not assess target audiences interest in a particular product, it should assess whether or not the packaging design appeals enough for the product to be purchased above other similar products.


It is important that students have an understanding of the suitability of packaging materials for different products. The information on plastics below should be of assistance:

Code 1 PET – Polyethylene Terephthalate e.g. soft drink bottles, sleeping bag filling

Code 2 HDPE – High Density Polyethylene e.g. drink bottles colour or white, milk bottles,
crinkly shopping bags

Code 3 PVC – Polyvinyl Chloride e.g. shoe soles, garden hose

Code 4 LDPE – Low Density Polyethylene Highly flexible can be heat sealed e.g. ice-cream
lids, garbage bags

Code 5 PP – Polypropylene Strong light e.g. ice-cream containers, yoghurt pots, crisp bags

Code 6 PS – Polystyrene Stiff/rigid e.g. yoghurt pots, plastic cutlery, hot drink cups and take away containers

Code 7 Other e.g. acrylic and nylon


Many of the following companies have excellent websites with relevant sections for students and teachers. Alternatively you can contact their marketing departments for further information.

Some of the main manufacturers of different packaging materials are as follows:

Cardboard and Paper Products
Amcor, Visy, Carter Holt Harvey, Colorpak, CPI Group

Milk cartons, Cups, Bowls etc and other cardboard
Tetra Pak, Huhtamaki, Visy

Plastics (including bioplastics)
Amcor, VIP Packaging, Visy, SIGNUM, Sealed Air/Cryovac, Huhtamaki, SCS Plastics, Impact International, Plantic, Viscount Plastics

Foil Containers and Laminates
Confoil, Aperio Group

Aluminium
Alcoa Australia Rolled Products

Steel and Metal Containers
Visy, Irwin and Sheehan, VIP Packaging, NCI, The Packaging Shop, Impress Australasia

Glass
O-I Asia Pacific, Amcor

Caps and Closures
Amcor, Chadwicks


Students at this level will be expected to demonstrate a high level of understanding of the roles, benefits and technical considerations of packaging in today’s world. Students and teachers should not be deterred by a lack of computer and technical resources, as their
rationale should give the Judges a good understanding of their knowledge.

By this level, students should be considering the need for strength inside the package as well as outside and consider ways to stop a product from moving within the package during transportation.

Protection from damage/waste along the supply chain is just as important a consideration environmentally, as what happens to the environment when the package has finished being used by the consumer.

Students have been asked to consider in their designs how easily their product would stack for transportation. They may need to include information on how their design will stack efficiently in a secondary container (e.g. carton box) and then fit onto a standard Australian
pallet for transportation. Efficiency in this area will avoid damage in transport (thus less damage and less environmental damage) and allows for maximum use of space leading to less trucks needing to be used.

The standard Australian pallet measures 1165mm by 1165mm.