Ribbed Plastic Container Structure for Lightweight Load Resistance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Plastic containers face challenges in maintaining structural integrity under stress and deformation during shipping and handling, particularly when supporting elements like paperboard are removed, and they require a balance of strength and rigidity to resist bending, leaning, and stretching while minimizing material use.
Innovation Solution
The design incorporates varying depth ribs and a strap base rib to distribute forces, providing resistance to bending, leaning, and stretching, while maintaining hoop strength and reducing material usage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Weight of moving object
If plastic containers use less material to reduce weight and cost, then transportation and manufacturing costs decrease, but structural integrity and resistance to deformation during shipping and handling worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The container wall is segmented into multiple ribs (first ribs, second ribs, third ribs) that divide the structural support function into discrete elements. These ribs are distributed around the container to collectively bear loads and resist deformation, allowing the overall structure to maintain strength with less material than a solid wall would require.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the container wall have different rib configurations optimized for their specific functional requirements. The first ribs provide general structural support, while the second and third ribs are positioned to specifically resist bending and top-loading forces. This localized optimization allows material to be concentrated where most needed rather than uniformly distributed.
2Device complexity
If supporting elements like paperboard are removed from packaging, then auxiliary packaging complexity and cost decrease, but stress on individual bottles increases leading to higher structural demands
Solution Approach 1:
The packaging support function is segmented from the auxiliary paperboard into multiple discrete rib structures integrated into the bottle itself. The first ribs provide circumferential support, while the second and third ribs provide vertical and diagonal support, collectively replacing the distributed support previously provided by paperboard flutes and corrugations.
Solution Approach 2:
The bottle structure serves its own packaging and protective function through its integrated rib system, eliminating the need for separate auxiliary packaging elements. The ribs are formed as part of the blow-molding process, making the container self-sufficient for both product containment and shipping protection.
3Reliability
If containers are designed to resist bending and top-loading failures, then reliability during shipping improves, but manufacturing complexity and processing difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The rib structures are designed as separate, modular features that can be independently formed during the blow-molding process. Each rib type (first, second, third ribs) serves a specific structural function and can be optimized separately, allowing manufacturers to adjust rib parameters without redesigning the entire container.
Solution Approach 2:
The rib configurations can be adjusted by changing manufacturing parameters such as mold geometry, blow pressure, and cooling rates. The first ribs extend partially around the container, while the second and third ribs have different orientations and depths, allowing fine-tuning of structural properties through parameter optimization rather than fundamental design changes.
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 design achieves improved structural integrity and resistance to deformation, allowing for lightweight containers that maintain shape and stability under pressure and handling conditions, with reduced material usage.
Implementation Method 1
A collection of flattened and/or shallow depth ribs act as recessed columns in the body of the bottle that distribute bending and top load forces along the wall to resist leaning, stretching, and crumbling.
Implementation Method 2
PET and other resins tend to relax at temperatures normally seen during use. This relaxation is a time dependent stress relieving response to strain.
Implementation Method 3
PET has viscoelastic properties of creep and relaxation.
Implementation Method 4
Pressure inside a bottle can be due to the bottle containing a carbonated beverage. Pressure inside a bottle can be due to pressurization procedures or processes performed during bottling and packaging.
Data Source
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AI summary
A container, having a base (24a), a bell (16), a neck (14) and a finish (12) defining an opening (11), and a shoulder (18) between a sidewall and the bell, the container comprising the sidewall disposed between the base and the bell. The sidewall is connected to the flat foot base (24a) and extends substantially along the central axis (25) to define at least an interior portion of the container. The sidewall has a plurality of sidewall ribs (20a). A grip portion (8) of the sidewall comprises a multiplicity of circumferentially positioned grip portion ribs (3a). The container comprises a plurality of strap ribs (40a), wherein each of the strap ribs extends substantially from a central portion of the base and terminates at a sidewall end in the grip portion. The strap ribs cooperate with recessed columns of the sidewall so as to resist at least one of bending, leaning, crumbling, or stretching along the sidewall and the base. The container comprises a plurality of load ribs (44a) spaced between adjacent strap ribs and the load ribs are configured to resist deformation of the base. The container comprises a plurality of feet (45a) formed between the strap ribs and the load ribs.