BATES RECEIVES SFI CERTIFICATION
Bates Container is now SFI Certified and will continue to support and initiate environmentally responsible practices in our company and industry.
ECT vs. Mullen
Corrugated board and boxes are given two types of tests to determine their durability and strength: the ECT, or Edge Crush Test, and the burst, or sometimes called "Mullen", test. These tests are completely different and measure different properties of the material.
In simple terms, the ECT measures top-to-bottom compression strength, while burst measures primarily puncture and tear resistance. The following is taken from the ISTA, or International Safe Transit Association, website, and describes the two grading systems in more detail:
Corrugated grades are based on these tests. When a test is applied to a sample, then the results allow us to assign a grade. So a particular run of board is not intrinsically ECT or burst, the designation only refers to how it was tested (board may be designed to optimize one or the other test results, however). If a run is designed to be graded ECT and then is graded ECT and marked accordingly, we typically call it ECT grade board. But the sample run could also be graded burst. Grade is just a classification system and there happens to be two systems. Accordingly it is not typically possible to tell the difference between ECT and burst grades as all board can fit into both grading systems.
So if your primary concern is crushed boxes and stacking problems, consider specifying in terms of ECT. If it's containment strength and puncture resistance, consider specifying in terms of burst. If you need both, specify both.