Development of Easily Folded Up PET Bottle

Abstract

It is available, for the garbage assembling issue of the disposed empty PET bottles, that PET bottle could be folded up easily and effectively by both hands. Then, based on the geometrical theory of cylindrical Origami proposed by Nojima, we designed some kinds of CAD model of PET bottle with regular folding lines in circular direction and evaluated the function of folding up for axial compressive loading by CAE. Two main useful results are obtained as follows. One is that the empty PET bottle with the configuration of inclined main folding lines could be folded up by hands. The second is that the PET bottle in full, with the configuration above mentioned, could have the stiffness necessary for keeping in a pile of bottles' case and vending machine by the effect of increased internal pressure which is loaded on the folding surface of the bottle wall.

Development of new foldable polyethylene terephthalate bottles

“…However, the most important objective is to allow a partially empty PET bottle to be placed in a bag compactly through folding. Our process is thus to fold the PET bottle in the axial direction as did Y. Kamata et al [24]. Although there are several methods of folding in the axial direction, we choose to load the top in the axial direction following Y.Kamata et al [24].…”

“…Our process is thus to fold the PET bottle in the axial direction as did Y. Kamata et al [24]. Although there are several methods of folding in the axial direction, we choose to load the top in the axial direction following Y.Kamata et al [24]. The design specifications are decided in terms of the maximum load and the status of spring back.…”

“…In reference [24], they use 700MPa for Young modulus which is obtained in a crushing experiment of cylindrical part cut out from a PET bottle. On the other hand, we use 1.0 GPa for Young modulus which is obtained in a cantilever bending experiment of small piece of cylindrical part cut out from a PET bottle as we did when we developed foldable RSO helmet of the same anisotropic cardboard material [29].…”

“…A major newspaper reported "Folding plastic bottles coming soon" in its science column with a photograph [22]. Many trials have subsequently been conducted by, for example, I. Ario [23] and Y.Kamata et al [24]. Although PET bottles that can be crushed by hand are commercially available, a plastic bottle that can fold in the axial direction without bending has not yet been developed.…”

“…Kamata et al investigated this problem through simulation in addition to experiments. However, their simulation was a linear static analysis and they did not investigate the spring back [24]. Here, we develop a new origami-based PET bottle design that can achieve axial compression without bending using both simulation analysis and physical experiments.…”