Strawberry crate

In cooperation with a group of strawberry growers Beekenkamp Verpakkingen has developed a new storage crate for strawberry plants. The crate is going to replace the current wooden crates and can be nested as well as stacked. This results in an enormous space saving during storage and further savings on transport costs. BPO has analysed the stacking strength of the crate.

Geometrically different corners are used to make the crate nestable as well as stackable. A consequence of this solution is that each long side wall has a different strength and stiffness. Of course, this is not good for the stacking strength. BPO has pointed out which side wall needs to be strengthened, how much it needs to be strengthened and how this can best be done using the results of optimisation analyses. On the basis of these results Beekenkamp Verpakkingen has improved the design of the crate, so it now has the required stacking strength and stability.