Featured Faculty
Kyle Dunno
College of Engineering Technology
Packaging is an important part of our everyday life. We are surrounded by packaging, even if we do not realize it. From shopping at your local grocery store to ordering products online, packaging is what contains and protects these products. However, before they arrive at the retail shelves or are dropped at our doorsteps, packaged products must first be transported through a diverse network of distribution channels.
Dr. Dunno’s research interests focus on the area of transport packaging, specific to the fundamental characterization of vehicle dynamics and the design of package and unit load systems. As packages and unit load systems are transported throughout the supply chain, they encounter a variety of hazards that challenge their integrity. Failure to overcome these hazards results in product damage and loss.
Dr. Dunno was recently awarded grants from the International Safe Transit Association (ISTA) and the Fibre Box Association (FBA). The funding from ISTA investigates and characterizes the small parcel (e-commerce) distribution network. This work will lead to the improvement of laboratory test simulations designed to evaluate packages shipping through e-commerce channels. The work with the FBA will quantify the vertical compressive resistance of unit load systems using different stacking pattern conditions, providing packaging engineers a set of design factors for use when developing unit load systems.
With significant changes in packaging design to improve sustainability – for example thinner, more flexible, and recyclable packaging – adjustments in stretch wrapping applications are critical in order to minimize load failure. Damaged product from load failure is counter-productive to the waste problem that sustainable packaging is designed to reduce. As a result, Dr. Dunno and his team are pioneering research efforts related to unit load stability to combat load failure. He and his team are working to characterize the horizontal accelerations associated with vehicular motion and using these findings to develop laboratory simulations. These simulations will allow for a better understanding of how a unit load system responds to these inputs, and how the application of stretch film can better be utilized to aid in successful, safe shipments of cargo.
Dr. Dunno obtained B.S. and M.S. degrees in Packaging Science, and a Ph.D. in Food Technology all from Clemson University. Dr. Dunno has published more than 15 referred journal papers and 20 conference proceedings.
Kyle Dunno
Assistant Professor
RIT College of Engineering Technology