Program BCT

BCT determines the compression strength and cost of regular slotted style corrugated containers from the mechanical properties of the combined corrugated fiberboard and the box dimensions. BCT applies an advanced box compression theory to the outputs of Program ECT.

The user has the option to accept the mechanical properties of the corrugated board as computed by Program ECT or to manually override the inputs for more specific analyses. The mechanical properties of ECT (or Asymmetric ECT), CD Bending Stiffness, and MD Bending Stiffness; the container dimensions of Length, Width, and Depth; and the model Calibration constants are input to BCT.

The CD Edge Crush Strength is selected from the appropriate outputs of Program ECT and depends on the criteria for asymmetric analysis. The user can adjust the BCT model for the effect of asymmetric combined board construction on container strength or neglect the effect of asymmetry and consider only the ECT corresponding to the predicted value in an edge crush test.

The model Calibration is selected from the default calibrations specified for single wall (SW), double wall (DW), and triple wall (TW) corrugated fiberboard construction based on data from the public literature. The user can override the default Calibration with specific constants fitted to corporate data.

The predictability of box strength from paper properties starting with Program PPR enables more rational safety factors to be applied and opportunities to reduce costs to be quantified.