During the distribution phase, packaged consignments are exposed to a variety of environmental hazards, such as vibrations, which, if excessively severe, may cause damage to or even destroy the product. The ability of packaging systems to withstand these dynamic loads is an important factor, since their function is not only to protect the product but also to ensure that damage to the package itself is not evidently apparent as this is likely to affect
consumer confidence. Such concerns often result in the use of excessive packaging material and this is no longer acceptable. Therefore, engineered protective packaging systems need to be optimised. Such optimisation requires a suitable technique for continuously monitoring the
structural integrity of the systems during laboratory based vibration testing.