Bottle Preform Grip Interface for Rigid Sliding Handle Attachment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing handle attachment methods for thermoplastic bottles suffer from issues such as weak connections, material deformation, high reject rates, and inconvenient handle orientation, particularly in large volume bottles like demijohns, due to handles being integrated with flexible parts or requiring excessive material usage.
Innovation Solution
A preform with a handle attachment interface featuring a translational guide slide, allowing a handle to be slid onto the neck or shoulder of the bottle post-blowing, ensuring a rigid and tenacious connection without material deformation, using a translational guide rib or groove with complementary projections for secure attachment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If the handle is placed in the mold before blowing the preform, then the handle is integrated with the bottle structure, but the connection is not tenacious and the material stretching creates structural weakness
Solution Approach 1:
The handle attachment system is divided into separate components: the handle itself and a dedicated attachment interface formed on the preform. This segmentation allows the handle to be added separately after blowing, avoiding the problems of integrating it during the blowing process while maintaining strong connection through the specialized attachment interface with guide ribs and engagement features.
Solution Approach 2:
The attachment interface is formed on the preform before blowing, including guide ribs and engagement features that are pre-positioned. This preliminary action ensures that when the handle is attached after blowing, it connects to a rigid, pre-formed interface rather than to stretched or flexible material, thereby ensuring tenacious connection and structural integrity.
2Ease of operation
If the handle surrounds the entire circumference of the neck, then the handle provides adequate grip, but a large amount of material is required
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of requiring the handle to surround the entire circumference of the neck, the attachment interface uses localized guide ribs and engagement features positioned at specific locations on the preform. This local quality approach provides adequate grip functionality while minimizing material consumption by concentrating the structural elements only where needed for attachment rather than distributing them uniformly around the entire neck.
3Ease of manufacture
If the handle is fitted on the neck of the bottle, then the handle is easily attached, but the handle orientation is not convenient for moving handlers and hinders placement on water dispensers
Solution Approach 1:
The attachment interface allows for flexible positioning of the handle on the preform, enabling the handle to be oriented in different locations and directions. This dynamic adaptability permits the handle to be positioned optimally for both ease of attachment and convenience for moving handlers, while avoiding interference with water dispenser placement by allowing positional flexibility rather than being fixed in a single location.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution provides a rigid and durable handle attachment that reduces material waste, minimizes deformation, and ensures convenient handle orientation, improving the bottle's structural integrity and ease of handling, especially for heavy loads.
Implementation Method 1
a translational guide slide formed on the external surface of the preform and capable of allowing the sliding attachment of a handle
Implementation Method 2
heating a thermoplastic preform in an oven and then blowing the heated preform into a mold
Implementation Method 3
blowing the heated preform into a mold to obtain a bottle whose shape matches that of the mold
Data Source
Figure 1
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AI summary
The present invention relates to a preform (1) intended to be blown into a bottle (16) made of thermoplastic material, said preform (1) comprising a cylindrical body comprising a barrel, a neck and a transition zone formed between the barrel and the neck, the preform (1) further comprising a handle attachment interface (7) formed in one piece on at least one of the neck and the transition zone of the preform (1), said handle attachment interface (7) comprising a translational guide slide (8) formed on the external surface of the preform (1) and capable of allowing the sliding attachment of a handle (12).