Page 20 - eBook_Proceedings of the International Conference on Digital Manufacturing V2

Proceedings of the International Conference on Digital Manufacturing –
Volume 2

compared with the results of reference bottles obtained through
FEA and experimental analysis.

Keawjaroen & Suvanjumrat (2017) simulated standardised
configuration of top load testing under elastic region and utilised
Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to predict the maximum vertical
deformation of top load while varying the curvature of master
bottle. Thongkaew & Naemsai (2020) studied the mechanical
properties of 6L PET bottle under 4-stack layer and showed that
reduction in bottle thickness directly effects the bottle strength,
and thus, the overall weight, resulting in 8.7% cost reduction.
Similarly, Silva de Miranda, Drummond Camera, Monken &
Gouvea (2011) conducted the simulations on existing preforms of
5L carbonated soft drink bottles using Finite Element Method and
then validated the results by fabricating the prototypes The result
indicated the possible weight reduction by 21% of its original
design. Thusneyapan & Suvanjumrat (2008) performed simulated
drop tests of PET bottles with various structural shapes and
designs. The results showed that bottles with a smooth continuous
surface and no edges at the wall have an improved sturdiness in
resisting the impact force generated during the drop test. Hu, Sha,
Li & Wang (2012) simulated the buckling analysis of PET bottle
under compression load with ABAQUS and improved the original
design by incorporating the effect of both bottle’s structure and
wall thickness.

High Density Polyethylene bottles are generally manufactured
with extrusion blow moulding, in which the cylindrical parison is
extruded first, then transferred between two halves of the mould,
and finally blown into a final product (Béreaux, Charmeau &
Balcaen, 2010). The uniformity of parison thickness is directly
affected by the self-weight of the parison and it will ultimately
influence the thickness distribution of the final product (Gao,
2012). In order to achieve the uniformity of wall thickness of
extrusion blow-moulded parts, a technique known as parison
programming is utilised which allows the variation of parison
thickness along the length of the parison to optimise the material
distribution of the final product. Therefore, more material can be
distributed to those areas that undergoes large deformation

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