In packaging engineering, axial load is the top-down crushing force a carton, bottle, or case can bear when stacked before it deforms or collapses — a critical specification in warehouse and transport packaging. Cases of canned goods, bottles, and cartons are stacked many layers high in distribution centers, and each package must bear the cumulative weight of those above it without deforming, bursting, or losing seal integrity. Packaging engineers test axial load with compression machines and design corrugated board grades, bottle wall thicknesses, and pallet patterns to meet the required stacking strength with minimum material. Failure means crushed cans with compromised seams, a food safety issue, not merely a cosmetic one. The concept links structural engineering to food protection: the box is part of the preservation system.