Plug Retention Strip Prefolding for Thin-Wall Manufacturing
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Solution Overview
Problem
The manufacturing of plugs with increasingly thinner walls poses challenges in folding the retention strip from its molding configuration to its operating configuration, leading to incomplete folding or axial squeezing, due to reduced radial interference with conventional pushers, which complicates the setting of the plug on a container neck.
Innovation Solution
The method involves prefolding the retention strip to an intermediate configuration during the cutting out of the break line, allowing for subsequent folding with a larger diameter pusher, ensuring the strip is firmly clamped and preventing elastic unfolding, thus facilitating its placement on a container neck.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of substance
If the wall thickness of the plug is reduced to limit plastic material usage, then the amount of material used is reduced, but the retention strip becomes increasingly difficult to fold completely due to reduced radial interference with the pusher
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by performing a first folding operation on the retention strip before the final folding operation. The retention strip is pre-folded to an intermediate configuration while still in the mold, which creates the necessary radial clearance for the pusher to subsequently complete the folding operation even when wall thickness is reduced. This preliminary deformation prepares the strip for the final folding action.
Solution Approach 2:
The folding process is segmented into two distinct operations: a first folding operation that creates an intermediate configuration, and a second folding operation that achieves the final operating configuration. This segmentation allows the retention strip to be folded in stages, with the first fold reducing the complexity of the second fold and enabling complete folding despite reduced wall thickness.
2Ease of manufacture
If a conventional pusher is used for folding the retention strip, then the manufacturing process is simple, but the retention strip may not fold completely or may cause axial squeezing of the skirt
Solution Approach 1:
The retention strip is pre-folded to an intermediate configuration during or after mold removal, creating the necessary geometric conditions for the subsequent pusher operation to complete the folding. This preliminary action ensures that the final folding operation can achieve complete deformation without requiring excessive radial interference that would cause axial squeezing.
Solution Approach 2:
The folding operation is divided into two sequential steps: first folding the retention strip to an intermediate configuration, then completing the fold with a pusher. This segmentation allows each operation to be optimized independently, maintaining manufacturing simplicity while ensuring complete folding without axial squeezing of the skirt.
3Productivity
If the retention strip is not completely folded, then the manufacturing process is simpler, but the plug setting on the container neck becomes complicated due to increased interference resistance
Solution Approach 1:
The retention strip is pre-folded to an intermediate configuration before the final plug setting operation. This preliminary folding reduces the radial dimension of the strip, minimizing interference with the container neck features during plug setting and ensuring smooth installation while maintaining manufacturing efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The folding process is segmented into operations that occur before plug setting, ensuring the retention strip is in its final folded configuration before installation. This sequencing guarantees that the plug is ready for setting without requiring additional folding operations during installation, maintaining both manufacturing efficiency and ease of plug setting.
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
This approach efficiently and economically achieves firm folding of the retention strip, even when quasi-vertical, simplifying the manufacturing process and improving the plug's setting onto a container neck by reducing interference resistance.
Implementation Method 1
the retention strip, in a molding configuration in which it extends from the skirt in a downward direction, is folded, from the molding configuration to an operating configuration, so as to delimit, when it is in the operating configuration, an abutment surface, directed upwards, abutting against the bulge
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure relates to a manufacturing method for a plug for a container neck. In one implementation, a skirt of the plug is molded and provided with an attachment device adapted to removably attach to the container neck and with a permanent retention strip around the container neck. The retention strip is adapted to pass, by folding, from a molding configuration to an operating configuration. A peripheral break line is then cut out in the skirt, adapted so as to be broken during the first opening of the plug. In some implementations, the retention strip may be prefolded and thereby pass from a molding configuration to an intermediate prefolded configuration. The retention strip is then folded until it passes into an operating configuration. In some implementations, the folding of the retention strip may pass the retention strip from an intermediate prefolded configuration to an operating configuration.