Memphis, TN - FedEx Corp. announced that FedEx TechConnect has opened a new package laboratory to better serve customers. The 30,000+ square-foot facility will serve both big and small FedEx Express, FedEx Ground and FedEx Freight customers, providing them free package testing and design services.
FedEx handles about 10 million packages per day and commerce on this scale requires a scientific focus on proper packaging.
“Packaging is a critical part of the supply chain and the work done in this new state-of-the-art facility will help ensure the safe transportation of our customers’ shipments,” said Cary Pappas, president and CEO of FedEx TechConnect. “This new facility is not only a testing and design center, it’s a customer education center. This lab allows our engineers to test and develop new packaging solutions and provide our customers valuable guidance.”
The first FedEx packaging lab began operations in 1987 and has evolved over the years. Today’s move to this new industry-leading facility is the culmination of three years of design and development work. The new laboratory uses the latest technology and testing protocols, including equipment that drops, squeezes and shakes various forms of packaging to test their strength and effectiveness.
The facility’s advanced environmental controls maintain the temperature and humidity in the laboratory’s preconditioning room and materials testing room to within 5% industry tolerance.
“We can simulate any part of the FedEx network anywhere in the world, from the desert to the rainforest to the Arctic,” said Pappas. The facility allows FedEx to test and design packaging for a wide variety of products that their customers may ship – from perishables, glass, delicate electronics and life sciences to large freight shipments.
The lab’s unique features include:
- Altitude chamber (Site level to 100,000 feet)
- Temperature chamber (-90°F to +350°F)
- Humidity chamber (within 2% tolerance)
- Two drop testers
- Three vibration tables
- Compression table
- Automated sample table
- 5-ton crane for testing skidded freight
- Forklift course for testing skidded freight
- Material testing laboratory
- Wood shop
- Other specialty design and testing equipment
The FedEx packaging lab is seeking LEED certification due to its environmentally-friendly features that include large windows and skylights for natural light, high efficiency HVAC, smart lighting system and native, low-maintenance vegetation in landscaping. In addition, for more than a decade FedEx has worked to minimize the environmental impact of our packaging wherever possible by using recycled content and by maximizing recyclability. FedEx packaging is made from up to 100% recycled content and in turn can be recycled.
