Dassault Systemes Case Studies Plastic Technologies, Inc.: Leveraging Simulation for Lightweighting and Root-Cause Analysis

Edit This Case Study Record

	Plastic Technologies, Inc.: Leveraging Simulation for Lightweighting and Root-Cause Analysis Dassault Systemes

Plastic Technologies, Inc.: Leveraging Simulation for Lightweighting and Root-Cause Analysis

Dassault Systemes

Technology Category	Analytics & Modeling - Digital Twin / Simulation Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Visualization Functional Applications - Product Data Management Systems
Applicable Industries	Consumer Goods Retail
Applicable Functions	Product Research & Development Quality Assurance
Use Cases	Digital Twin Inventory Management Predictive Maintenance
Services	Software Design & Engineering Services System Integration
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. Read More
About 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. Read More
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. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Digital Twin / Simulation

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Visualization

Functional Applications - Product Data Management Systems

Applicable Industries

Consumer Goods

Retail

Applicable Functions

Product Research & Development

Quality Assurance

Use Cases

Digital Twin

Inventory Management

Predictive Maintenance

Services

Software Design & Engineering Services

System Integration

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 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.

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.

Impact #1	Realistic simulation with Abaqus has enabled PTI to reduce development costs.
Impact #2	The company achieved faster time to market for its customers.
Impact #3	PTI improved design and production troubleshooting and diagnoses, giving it a strong competitive edge.

Impact #1

Realistic simulation with Abaqus has enabled PTI to reduce development costs.

Impact #2

The company achieved faster time to market for its customers.

Impact #3

PTI improved design and production troubleshooting and diagnoses, giving it a strong competitive edge.

Benefit #1	The top-load strength of a plastic bottle drops nearly in half from 19 lbf (pound force) to 12 lbf as the container is light-weighted from 17g to 14g.
Benefit #2	The simulated data was physically validated by molding samples at both 17g and 14g, and the predictions were within 90% of the actual observed values.

Benefit #1

The top-load strength of a plastic bottle drops nearly in half from 19 lbf (pound force) to 12 lbf as the container is light-weighted from 17g to 14g.

Benefit #2

The simulated data was physically validated by molding samples at both 17g and 14g, and the predictions were within 90% of the actual observed values.

Download PDF Version

Overview

Plastic Technologies, Inc.: Leveraging Simulation for Lightweighting and Root-Cause Analysis

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit