For more than 40 years the VLB conducts its Testing Laboratory for Packaging. This lab is specialised on testing of packaging and means of packaging for the beverage industry. Whether glass or plastic bottles, crown corks, screw caps, crates, cans, secondary packaging – our Testing Laboratory for Packaging can assist you with nearly every problem.
Recently new tests for plastic bottles (PET/PEN) have been established.

Our testing and service program covers

• Glass bottles: Internal pressure resistance, impact resistance, dimensional stability, empty weight & volume, reusability - simulation of circulations, thermal shock resistance, surface finish, colour properties.
• Plastic bottles: Internal pressure resistance, impact resistance, dimensional stability, permeation analysis (oxygen & carbon dioxide permeability), stress crack test
• Cans & Lids: Buckle & burst test, dimensional stability, volume, axial compression strength, seaming check for original filled cans, scoreline test, tear force, condition of the inner coating.
• Large beverage cans: dent resistance, dimensional stability, volume, axial compression strength, condition of the inner coating, sheet thickness
• Crown cork: Internal pressure resistance, side impact strength, top-load test, paint abrasion, corrosion resistance, pasteurisation test, dimensional stability, sheet thickness, sheet hardness, odour and taste influence, permeation analysis (oxygen & carbon dioxide permeability)
• Aluminium roll-on closures & plastic screw caps: Internal pressure resistance, top-load test, dimensional stability, opening values, odour and taste impact, permeation analysis (oxygen & carbon dioxide permeability).
• Beverage crates: impact resistance (free fall & inclined plane), dimensional stability, post-shrinkage (change in dimensional stability after warm storage), weight, stacking pressure resistance, compression pressure resistance, grip performance tests, stress-free test, inmould label tests, tape test.
• Multi-Packs for bottles and cans: Static tensile strength Handle hole cut-outs, Bottom tear strength, Dynamic stability of quill cut-outs, Quill runability, Continuous wet strength, Dimensional stability, Tensile strength and elongation, Mass per unit area, Specific volume, Thickness, Abrasion resistance of inks.
• Bottle burst analysis: Glass breakage analysis: reconstruction of the destroyed bottle, localisation of the breakage starting point, determination of the cause of breakage
• Labels: reusability - alkali resistance, alkali penetration & peel time, evaluation of paper and print quality, dimensional stability, dry & wet breaking load, fibre direction, water absorption capacity, basis weight.
• Adhesives: Condensation water resistance, ice water resistance, release time in a caustic bath, washability of hot melts
• Filling quantity stencils for in-house filling quantity control: production of new stencils, duplication of existing stencils
• Advice on the selection of adequate packaging

All analyses are performed in laboratories which meet the demands of the international standard DIN EN ISO/IEC 17025:2018 for the test procedures listed in the annex to the accreditation certificate.