Design and Aging - a New Challenge for License Holders and Users

The design of the package shall take into account ageing mechanisms.”However, it can be anticipated that this simple sentence will have a considerable impact on the existing fleet of packagings. Para. 613A will certainly affect relicensing of packagings regularly used for transport as well as packages in interim storage.The paper will concentrate on transport packagings regularly loaded and unloaded and not used for long term interim storage. It will discuss possible consequences for relicensing of “old” packages in use for decades, medium aged packages where already some aspects of aging were considered in the design phase, and new packages which are just licensed taking into account the new para. 613A to come into force in the next few years. It will show solutions to satisfy the requirements if a large number of rather inexpensive packagings is available and discuss the possible problems if only a small number of expensive packagings exists.For the first case study – old package design, large number of inexpensive packagings available – the BU-D package is used. The paper will present possible solutions to overcome the problem that the package has been designed before para. 613A was born.For the second case study – medium old package design, small number of expensive packagings available – the NCS45 package is used. Here, a showcase gap analysis is presented to evaluate strong and weak points of the design with respect to para. 613A.Finally, for the third case study – new package design anticipating para. 613A – the DN30 package is used. Here, the design steps to assure compliance with para. 613A are explained and presented.