ISTA reviews the ISTA 6-Amazon.com

Micom is proud to announce that it now offers the new version of the ISTA 6-Amazon.com standard as part of its package testing services. ISTA 6-Amazon.com—Packaged Products for Amazon.com Distribution System Shipment—is used to simulate Amazon.com’s shipping environment.This test version supersedes the one that was initially released as a project in October 2014. The main change that has occurred in the 2018 version of this method is the addition of a category that is solely dedicated to monitors and TVs.

The ISTA 6-Amazon.com test

The goal of the ISTA 6-Amazon.com method is to assess the ability of the package, and of the contains to withstand distribution hazards that are present in the shipping environment of Amazon.com. In fact, this standard is consisted of two test protocols and each of them is specially designed to characterize a set of products. Indeed, the ISTA 6-Amazon.com-SIOC method is used for packaged products that are initially shipped boxed or palletized by the manufacturer to Amazon.com and then delivered to the client through the use of parcel delivery systems or Less-Than-Truckload (LTL). Table 1 details the main characteristics of this method.

Table I: Characteristics of ISTA 6-Amazon-SIOC method

On the other hand, the ISTA 6-Amazon.com-Over Boxing method is employed for individuals or multiple packaged products that are placed in a master shipping container that weighs up to 70 lbs for shipment by Amazon.com and then delivered to the customer through a parcel delivery system. Lastly, each packaging type test uses a combination of static and dynamic tests with stress levels that were established based on field measurements done throughout Amazon’s distribution pipelines in order to assess the ability of the