Berry Plastics Liner-less Detergent Cap Team 7 Tom Pepe Ross Rozansky Dale Heintzelman Cherish Wilford Glenn Catlin Advisor: Dr. Michael Keefe Sponsor Contact: John Tauber

About Berry Plastics Leading manufacturer of injection molded packaging in the U.S. Currently working on new product development around liner-less closures With the partnership of UD and our sponsor, John Tauber, a new liner-less detergent cap will be designed

Problem Definition The current cost of polypropylene is rising causing the cap liners to become more and more expensive The cost of the liner is now close to 1/3rd of the total cost to make the cap A new design is needed to eliminate the need for a liner The design should be as effective and inexpensive as possible Liner

Affected Customers Liquid detergent companies, i.e. Clorox Retail stores, i.e. Walmart General public Elderly Middle aged Teenagers

Problem Specifics Wants Low Cost Maximum Seal Time Aesthetically Pleasing Easy to Grip Easy to Close Simple Design Constraints Liner-less Design Injection Molded One Piece Applied Torque

Want Weights

Metrics and Target Values Gap Size – Area between cap and bottle does not change from current design Cost - < $60 per 1000 caps Appendage Thickness – None Time Until Leak – 1 hr < t < 24hr Reproducibility of Results - > 90% Loss of Fluid – 0 mL Torque Required – τ = 35 in-lbs

Metric Weights

Benchmark Concepts Solo Cap XTRA Cap Type of seal Fin seal with bottle Wedge seal to spout component Fin Wedge

Benchmark Concepts cont. All Cap Type of seal Cap lays flat against bottle land; tight tolerance Febreze Cap Wedge seal to bottle spike Wedge

Benchmark Cap Leak Testing To determine which concepts work better than others Tested with actual product (detergent) inside Caps tightened to 35 in-lbs Bottles lay flat on their side and checked periodically for leakage Each benchmark tested twice

Leak Test Results From Benchmark Caps All- Tied for best -Excellent tolerance XTRA- Tied for best -Strong seal to deformable spout component Febreze- Tied for worst -Flimsy spike design Solo- Tied for worst -Fin offered weak seal with bottle Cap Viscosity (Pa-s) Time until leak (hrs) All 0.18 - XTRA 0.05 Solo 0.12 2 to 3 Febreze  < XTRA 3

Our Concepts Two Vertical Fins Fray out to touch walls when screwed down Force from cap walls and plastic fin resilience create seal with both bottle and spout Problem- Space between outside fins and cap interior is too thin Mold has a high probability to break over time from stress

Our Concepts Cont. Flat Contact Proven easy and successful With proper tolerance cap sits flush on bottle top, creating a tight seal Problem- Tolerance would have to be incredible Top of bottle would have to be consistently manufactured completely flat

Our Concepts Cont. Internal Wedge Cap tightens to inside wall of spout while screwing down Allows more surface contact Allows least amount of liquid to directly reach the seal Fluid pushes cap against bottle naturally

Primary Cap Design Main Metrics Metric #1- Gap Size (26%) Tight fit Metric #3- Appendage Thickness (18%) No increases in thickness measured from the base. i.e.- injection moldable

Prototype Testing Same testing procedure as before with water No seal lasted 1 hr. Notch Wedge

Change in Problem Scope The seal may not be achievable if the bottle was manufactured incorrectly Changing a spec on the bottle itself may be a cheaper and simpler solution than designing a new cap Need to show evidence of the bottle being direct cause of failure before changing specs

Bottle Testing Tests of current bottles and liner-less caps from Berry Plastics 16 different bottles/16 different caps for a total of 256 tests Bottles lay flat on their sides with paper towel underneath to observe leakage

Bottle Testing cont. Bottles filled with water for most extreme testing Caps torqued to 35 in-lbs using torque meter Max time limit of 1 hour Results: 48% success rate

Testing Results Bottles show more consistency

Bottle Investigation Possible Causes of Failure Bottle land flatness Wall thickness Distance from start of thread to bottle land

Correlations More consistent wall thickness promotes a longer seal Flatter Bottles sealed longer

Bottle Manufacturer Reaming process impact: Wall thickness Flatness Land distance to thread

New Bottle Testing Success rate of 94.4%

Leak Investigation Fin Gap No Gap

Recommendations Implement new bottle specs with old cap design Wall thickness variability- < 0.020 inches Flatness- < 0.010 inches End Lip variability- < 0.005 inches Manufacturer limitations? Create a new cap design Greater wedge angle Same fin from old cap Do both Wedge Fin

Questions/Concerns Thank You