Micom Reviews the GM 1738NA Revision 4 Packaging Specification

The GM 1738NA packaging specification contains requirements for shipping containers used by suppliers for the transportation of production parts to GM facilities. One such requirement for palletised loads is that they must be tested to either ISTA 3E or ASTM D4169 by an accredited laboratory. The requirement came into effect on February 1, 2020. 

One thing that immediately jumps out is that no Distribution Cycle (DC) or Assurance Level is specified for the ASTM D4169 specification. DC is chosen based on the transportation vehicle (ex: train, truck, plane) and the distribution pipeline (ex: parcel delivery, less than truckload, full truckload) of the product. Assurance level defines the severity of the test parameters. Level I is the most severe, Level II is moderate, and Level III the least severe. Given that ISTA 3E is a procedure for unitized loads, DC 6 would be the ASTM D4169 equivalent. Assurance Level 2, and a medium level truck spectrum for vibration, most closely matches the parameters of ISTA 3E; however test severity can be modified for each particular si