We recently performed a compression test on a 3.5 gallon HDPE plastic bucket. The purpose of the test was to measure the force required to secure the lid onto the bucket and the force required to make the bucket/lid assembly collapse. These are important characteristics to understand to improve the lid sealing operation and shipping characteristics of the container. Our eXpert 2613 dual column universal testing machine was programmed to compress the bucket at a constant 1" per minute.  The chart generated from the MTESTQuattro testing software will allow us to find the peak closure force, and the peak force before the bucket collapsed.  We were surprised that the bucket withstood nearly 3500 pounds of force before it buckled. You can see a video of the test below.