Surrogate Models for Packaging System Design Optimization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing material processing systems face unexpected efficiency losses and reliability issues due to reductions in package component thickness, leading to operational failures and increased costs, necessitating a method for evaluating systems to ensure stable and high-reliability operation under economic conditions.
Innovation Solution
A method involving the creation of surrogate models to quantify interactions between product, apparatus, and package representations, allowing for the evaluation and alteration of designs to optimize performance across various transformations, including filling, sealing, packaging, and shipping processes, using computational simulations and statistical tools like Gaussian processes and neural networks.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If package component thickness is reduced to lower costs, then equipment cost is improved, but operational reliability deteriorates due to unexpected efficiency losses and operational failures
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by creating virtual prototypes and surrogate models before physical implementation. The system evaluates package designs, material properties, and processing parameters through computational simulations to predict operational performance and reliability. This allows identification and correction of potential failures before actual manufacturing and processing, preventing the need to thicken components solely for reliability reasons.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements feedback through iterative evaluation cycles using surrogate models. The system continuously refines design parameters based on simulated performance data, adjusting material properties, package dimensions, and processing conditions to achieve optimal reliability at minimal cost. This feedback loop enables data-driven decisions rather than conservative over-engineering.
2Quantity of substance
If package component thickness is reduced, then material cost is improved, but productivity deteriorates due to operational failures in packaging operations
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary computational evaluation of thin-package designs through virtual prototypes, assessing their performance in actual packaging operations before manufacturing. This allows identification of potential operational issues with reduced-thickness components and enables design adjustments to maintain productivity while minimizing material usage.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent utilizes parameter changes by systematically varying material properties, package dimensions, and processing parameters in the surrogate models to identify optimal combinations. This enables finding the minimum thickness that maintains acceptable productivity levels, rather than using excessive material.
3Ease of manufacture
If apparatus design is altered to improve equipment cost, then manufacturing cost is improved, but reliability deteriorates due to reductions in operating speed and operational reliability
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by creating virtual prototypes of processing apparatus and evaluating their performance through surrogate models before physical construction. This allows assessment of how design alterations affect both cost and operational reliability, enabling optimization of apparatus design to achieve cost reduction without sacrificing operating speed or reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system employs parameter changes by adjusting apparatus design parameters in the computational models to identify optimal configurations. This enables finding design alterations that reduce equipment cost while maintaining or improving operating speed and reliability through data-driven optimization rather than trial and error.
4Manufacturing precision
If incremental improvements are made through prototype systems, then design optimization is improved, but time consumption increases due to extensive prototyping and evaluation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies copying by creating virtual prototypes and surrogate models that replicate the behavior of physical systems. These computational copies enable extensive design evaluation, optimization, and testing without the time and resource requirements of physical prototyping. The surrogate models capture the essential physics and behavior of packaging systems, allowing rapid iteration and optimization.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent substitutes mechanical prototyping and physical testing with computational simulations and statistical surrogate models. This replacement eliminates the iterative cycle of building physical prototypes, conducting tests, and analyzing results, replacing it with faster computational evaluation that achieves the same design optimization goals in significantly less time.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for designing a product processing apparatus. The method includes: providing a design of a product processing apparatus; providing a representation of the product processing apparatus; providing a representation of a product; providing a representation of a product package; simulating the interactions of any combination of the product, apparatus, and package as a set of transformations utilizing the product, apparatus, and/or package representations; creating a surrogate model for at least one transformation of the set utilizing the simulation results; evaluating the performance of the apparatus utilizing the set of surrogate models of the transformations; and altering the design of the apparatus according to the evaluation.