The U.S. Department of Transportation provides 49 CFR Part 178 to outline manufacturing and testing specifications for packages and containers used to transport hazardous materials in commerce.
Transport includes the entire transport cycle and includes land, air and sea transport. Usually air transport is the most restrictive. In general, hazardous materials should be packaged in performance packaging consisting of inner containers, cushioning and absorbent materials. In addition, the outer container or packaging must be designed, manufactured and certified for the preservation of the specified packaging groups and dangerous goods classes.
All packages should be tested in conditions similar to the intended shipment. Also, most tests are performed in many units. In most cases, testing one unit is applicable to the rest of the batch. If a failure occurs, technically the entire batch will fail. Testing of other units in a batch can be completed to try to overcome a previous failure.
Each dangerous substance has an associated packaging authorization reference that relates to a specific part of 49 CFR 178. These sections specify the approved external and internal components of performance packaging.
As mentioned earlier, air transport often has the most stringent requirements, which can include specifications for closures, quantity restrictions for inner packagings, pressure differential testing for packages designed to contain liquids, provisions for the carriage of cylinders, and absorbent material specifications.
According to UPS, dangerous goods shipments authorized for non-specified packaging requiring a shipping paper must be in outer packages at the following minimum levels (overpacks are excluded from this requirement):
EUROLAB, together with its state-of-the-art accredited laboratories and expert team, helps you get precise and fast results within the scope of 49 CFR 178 tests.
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