Innovation Center

Shake. Rattle. Roll.

Would you do this to your products?

How about freeze, heat, vibrate, drop, crush, mangle, melt, tear apart, burn, beat, and slam?...Well, we would.

Welcome to Your Innovation Center.

The key to handling product damage is finding the root causes — zeroing in
on the when, where and why damage happens. Does it happen due to routine movements through your network and supply chain? Is it caused by environmental factors? Or is it automated systems and material-handling
equipment? Yours or even your customers’?

Reducing product damage can be done efficiently and cost effectively as part of our comprehensive offering to reduce unsaleables. CHEP has the knowledge and tools to help you get it done. We have deep operational experience with both manufacturer and retailer supply chains, an ISTA-certified Innovation Center for testing, and we literally “wrote the book” on best-in-class strategies to reduce unsaleables together with the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) and Grocery Manufacturer Association (GMA).

This is where you can find CHEP engineers ready to work with you to design, test, and validate your material handling platforms and packaging to help you improve the performance of your product in storage and transit.

Whatever your needs, we are here to help.

Contact a CHEP Representative

Unit Load Optimization

There are many elements that can affect the performance of your unit load: packaging, design, transportation, etc. Based on your needs, we will customize your experience at the Innovation Center to help you validate or realize areas of improvement. Our engineers will scrutinize everything from how product is arranged on the pallet (or container) to how the unit loads are positioned in a rail car for a cross-country train shipment.

Services Include:

Unit load configuration
Primary and secondary packaging
Tertiary packaging (stretch wrap, corner posts, etc.)
Product weight and durability
Transportation loading patterns/trailer or container optimization

Product Damage Reduction

CHEP Innovation Center - Vibration Testing

A trip through the CHEP Innovation Center is a trip through the supply chain. CHEP will work with you to simulate the supply chain conditions that your package/product will endure during transit or while in storage.

Our testing will identify packaging or material handling opportunities that can be modified to improve performance, ensure safe delivery and help reduce product damage.

Imagine being able to visit Your Innovation Center and test your product’s unit loads in multiple supply chain scenarios (racking, stacking, and storage) and in different climates (hot, cold, dry, and humid). We can even test a unit load’s performance during a simulated 500 km trip on a rail car or in the back of a truck with our vibration table.

ISTA Certified testing services:

Product damage analysis
Vibration testing
Long-term stack testing
Compression testing
Stretch wrap analysis
Impact testing
Materials testing (corrugated, paperboard, plastic lms, etc.)
Environmental testing
Drop testing

Packaging Performance Testing

CHEP Innovation Center - Packaging Performance

Validating the performance of packaging materials and their compatibility with material handling equipment in real-world conditions is essential for supply chain optimization.

CHEP engineers will perform laboratory and on-location testing with material handling equipment and systems to help you maximize the cost-benefit of using CHEP pooled pallets and containers.

Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS)
Forklifts and pallet-jack testing
Conveyor system analysis
On-site consulting and analysis
Equipment manufacturer collaboration

Innovation Center