Reusable Nesting Plastic Container With Reinforced Ribs
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Solution Overview
Problem
Blow molded plastic containers face challenges in design flexibility, durability, and handling due to manufacturing limitations, leading to issues like deformation, buckling, and failure of annular legs and stacking beads under pressure, which hinder efficient storage and transportation of food products.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of extended vertical ribs spanning at least 95% of the container's lower portion, a reinforced annular leg thicker than the container wall, and a stacking bead positioned between container walls with an inward offset, along with continuous ribbing and air passage features to enhance strength and ease nesting and denesting.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If containers are nested within one another for storage, then storage efficiency is improved, but the lower container portions and bottoms permanently deform due to internal pressure from food
Solution Approach 1:
The container is divided into an upper portion and a lower portion separated by a stacking bead. This segmentation allows the upper portion to rest on the stacking bead rather than directly compressing the lower portion's bottom, distributing the load and preventing permanent deformation while still enabling nesting.
Solution Approach 2:
The stacking bead acts as an intermediary element between the upper and lower container portions. It provides a bearing surface that prevents direct contact and pressure transmission from the upper container's bottom to the lower container's bottom, thereby preventing deformation during nesting.
2Weight of moving object
If annular legs are made thin to reduce weight, then ease of handling is improved, but the legs permanently deform or fracture under large forces during tilting and rolling
Solution Approach 1:
The leg structure transitions from a uniform thin annular leg to a design with varying thickness - thinner at the top for weight reduction and thicker at the bottom for strength. This local quality change allows the leg to be lightweight where full strength is not needed while providing sufficient strength at the base to handle tilting and rolling forces.
3Stability of the object's composition
If stacking beads are used to prevent top containers from sliding, then nesting stability is improved, but the beads bend upward or fracture under large shear forces from bottom containers
Solution Approach 1:
The stacking bead design incorporates an asymmetric configuration where the lower container wall is inwardly offset from the upper container wall. This asymmetry creates a geometric interlock that provides nesting stability through shape compatibility rather than relying solely on the stacking bead's mechanical strength, thereby reducing shear forces on the bead.
4Strength
If partial external ribbing is added to prevent lower container deformation, then some structural support is improved, but the buckling problem and container floor deformation problems persist
Solution Approach 1:
The container is divided into upper and lower portions separated by a stacking bead, with the upper portion tapered to fit within the lower portion. This segmentation allows the upper container to nest within the lower container without the upper container's bottom directly contacting and deforming the lower container's bottom, preventing deformation issues that partial ribbing failed to address.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention pertains to a blow molded plastic container configured to hold food or food-related products, including cheese. In a first embodiment, the container includes extended vertical ribs that have a height that spans at least about ninety-five percent of a height of a lower portion of the container. In a second embodiment, the container includes a reinforced annular leg that is greater than the thickness of the container wall. In a third embodiment, the stacking bead is positioned between the lower and upper container walls, and the lower container wall is inwardly offset from the upper container wall. In a fourth embodiment, the container bottom is reinforced with continuous ribbing as opposed to only partial ribbing incorporated in containers known in the art.