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Plastic Technologies, Inc.: Leveraging Simulation for Lightweighting and Root-Cause Analysis
Technology Category
- Analytics & Modeling - Digital Twin / Simulation
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Visualization
Applicable Industries
- Consumer Goods
- Retail
Applicable Functions
- Product Research & Development
- Quality Assurance
Use Cases
- Predictive Maintenance
- Inventory Management
- Digital Twin
Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
- System Integration
The Challenge
Plastic Technologies Inc. (PTI), a leader in plastic package design services, was seeking a more cost-effective and efficient alternative to extensive physical prototyping and testing. The company wanted to help its customers lightweight plastic container designs and aid in root-cause analysis of product failures. The focus was on designing lighter-weight versions of current packaging to reduce costs and meet consumers’ demand for more sustainable products. However, achieving the optimal design that can offset lightweight material composition with a structure that still meets stringent performance requirements was a challenge.
About The Customer
Plastic Technologies Inc. (PTI) is a leader in plastic package design services. The company has a broad range of clients, including consumer product companies, plastic processors, and material suppliers. In a typical year, PTI performs as many as 500 unique design developments and an average of five iterations per design for clients. The company recently completed its 10,000th bottle design since its inception in 1985. PTI employs state-of-the-art CAD tools, including Dassault Systèmes’ CATIA application, in the development of innovative designs for its customers.
The Solution
PTI adopted SIMULIA, a key component of Perfect Package Industry Solution Experience, in combination with the company’s proprietary simulation tool, to vet lightweight PET container designs based on top load and side-load performance in a virtual world. Abaqus also helped PTI’s efforts to optimize preform parameters and eliminate performance failures. The simulation-led design approach enabled the PTI design team to greatly reduce the amount of time and resources spent on building and testing physical prototypes. Abaqus was often employed in concert with PTI’s proprietary virtual-prototyping software, which was used to simulate the reheating of preforms, replicate the blow molding of containers, and predict the material thickness distribution of associated mechanical properties.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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