APT - In The News

Accidents are Steve Kajewski’s business. Kajewski spends his days man-handling precious cargo and jostling million-dollar equipment to simulate the indelicate world a product is likely to encounter once it leaves the friendly confines of a lab. "Our motto is: ‘If it’s not broken, we haven’t tested it,’" said Kajewski, who manages the advanced packaging technology division of Storage Technology Corp. Kajewski and his staff of 15 conjure up dozens of likely scenarios that can leave a product useless after shipping, testing everything from packaging strength to the effects of extreme heat and cold in an effort to prevent damage. The 17,000- square foot facility in the company’s Longmont plant began operation more than three years ago, but they just opened the doors to the public. "We feel the whole world can be a customer," Kajewski said, "because everybody ships something." Roger Morgan, the manager of mechanical operations at the division, hopes to turn the advanced packaging unit into a moneymaker for the computer storage giant. "With a lab this sophisticated, we feel that we can use it as a profit center," Morgan said. Initial outside customers include Exabyte and Coors Brewing Company. Coors came to the center looking to cut packaging cost by removing the cardboard dividers between its beer bottles. Kajewski’s crew had to figure out the best way to use less packing without breaking more bottles. "The first time we had beer down here the security guards were coming down wondering if we were having a party and why they weren’t invited," he said. While they had to break a few bottles in the process, the crew eventually concocted a solution that should allow Coors to cut corners on its packaging costs. A tour of the facility begins in the prototype workshop. From here, the engineers can quickly build packaging made of everything from wood to foam to sheet metal to corrugated fiberboard. The second stop takes visitors to the testing room where engineers push prototypes to the limits or gauge the durability of the products themselves. The staff did more than 800 tests on StorageTek’s Iceberg storage system, trying to cure structural weaknesses and prevent the million-dollar product from succumbing to the rigors of air, ocean, and road travel. Kajewski said when he started his career in package testing, engineers used to drop boxes by hand, measuring the distance from the ground to determine durability. "We’ve come a long way since ’78,"he said. New, they have a machine that drops boxes for them and allows them to test impacts on all the corners and edges as well as the float surfaces of the packages. An assortment of vibration machines test product endurance to the normal conditions of travelling. Computers run simulations ranging from the vibrations of a 2,500 transcontinental truck trip to a transatlantic boat ride. "We can even differentiate from a prop plane and a jet plane," Kajewski said. The technicians observe and record the tests from the safety of the control room. "Things fly around sometimes," Kajewski said. "We had a piece of metal fly off and break one of the windows once." Fortunately, the shard only penetrated the first layer of the double-paned glass. The operation’s pride and joy might just be the Horizontal Impact Testing System, or HITS. The aptly named HITS, which Kajewski boasts is the largest of its kind anywhere, is similar to the machines that slam new cars into walls to check safety. StorageTek’s HITS simulates the impact from trucks bumping into loading docks or train cars jolting during the coupling process. "We call it our rocket sled," he said of the huge platform that rams into a 19,000-pound steel barrier. They also have a compression tester, which squeezes products with a big hydraulic press, and shock tester, which drop bigger boxes and carts. Aside from the testing in the lab, Kajewski’s staff also takes its show on the road with remote sensing devices. The crew routinely will slip a monitor into a box before it leaves the plant to watch how the packages are handled. The entire unit not only helps lower insurance—it has cut StorageTek’s in half—it allows manager to breathe easier once a product leaves the plant. "If we see damage, it’s not because the packaging failed. It’s because it was mishandled," Kajewski said. "And we can prove it."

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