Project 2: Packaging: some research

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Large tubs of yogurt use pinch&peel lids, as well as a primary lid for use and storage

 

 

 

 

 

 

Small individual tubs of yogurt also use the pinch&peel lids, but do not have a primary lid because of it's single use.

The only yogurt packaging that didn't appear to use the pinch& peel type lids were the large yogurt tubs by 'yoplait'

Project 2: Packaging: initial concepts

Pop off lid as seen on some medicine bottles (but not intended for medicine bottles)

Yogurt tub tab

Video Blog B- How it's Made: Packaging

How it’s made: Packaging

In the six How it’s made: Packaging videos, covering Aluminium cans, cardboard boxes, glass bottles, plastic bottles and jars, packaging tubes and tetra paks.
I believe that these six videos are incredibly helpful to future industrial designers that may one day find a career in packaging because it gives designers an idea as to what kind of technology there is existing already in the packaging manufacture industry, what kind of ideas people have thought of to achieve certain goals, and what kind of things must be considered when designing for packaging.
How it’s made: Aluminium Cans- After watching this video, I had learnt so much that I didn’t know before about how aluminium cans were made, such as the hydrofluoric acid washes that they use to clean the cans, and the de-ionised water rinses. Another interesting point that I noticed in the video was how many different protective coatings of different things they sprayed for the aluminium cans, both several layers inside and outside. And quite amazing how fast the protective layering processes actually are especially the product printing process. An advantage of aluminium cans is that they can be recycled continuously, an infinite amount of times, thus cutting out the step of mining and refinement of virgin aluminium.
How it’s made: Cardboard boxes- An advantage of cardboard boxes is that they can be made from mostly recycled paper and that even cut-offs from the manufacturing process are collected and reprocessed at the paper mill again. The manufacture of cardboard boxes use glue made of water and starch to stick the liners to the flutes, this is good because then there are no toxic chemicals used in the glues and thus none in the cardboard boxes.
How it’s made: Glass Bottles- Glass is an amazing material because they are made from completely natural materials that are abundant and also that glass is 100% recyclable.  An interesting idea that I saw in the video was the idea of passing the glass bottles through flames after they have been blow moulded just so they don’t cool down to quickly and shatter from thermal shock.
How it’s made: Packaging Tubes- The impact extrusion process in this packaging type was very interesting,
How it’s made: Tetra Paks- The tiny ideas such as the strobe light being used to inspect the printing on the tetra paks is an interesting idea. An advantage of these tetra pak containers is that they are entirely recyclable even with so many layers inside them.
How it’s made: Plastic Bottles and Jars-  All the ideas are amazing when you think about it, because it makes you wonder, just how much thought has gone into processes like this, having all the machinery working together so precisely and even having water running through the mould tools so that cooling of the plastic bottles once they have been blow moulded is instant.

Video Blog C- The lightbulb conspiracy

The Light Bulb Conspiracy

The documentary, ‘The light bulb conspiracy- the untold story of planned obsolescence’ gives us insight as to what planned obsolescence is and how it came about in the 1920s.
Planned obsolescence has been a crucial factor in the world’s economy, by giving products a set life span, this helped to keep the world’s economy running because consumers would often have to replace products that have come to the end of their life span, the regulated need to manufacture and sell these products also kept unemployment rates down.
In the 1950s, planned obsolescence came back around, but in another form. The idea was that by promoting the concept to consumers they should keep renewing their products just to keep up with times and styles even when the previous product was still fully functioning, this created an economy based more upon ‘desires’ rather than ‘necessities’.
At the origin of planned obsolescence, in theory it made sense in order to keep the economy running and unemployment down, but also at the origin of planned obsolescence, people lived in a world where they thought the resources used both in the products and the processes making the products were abundant. Almost a century later, we find out that people in the 1920s were terribly mistaken, we live in a finite world and it is astonishing that it took this long for anyone to realise it and speak up. In this present day, we now have to inform the rest of the world about terrible consumer habits and pay attention to our future waste and existing waste.
A new idea called cradle to cradle could possibly be the key to saving our planet from the past century of damage, this idea is what humans now have to try and adopt when manufacturing new products, this cradle to cradle idea imitates nature itself and how nature does not create any waste, matter in nature just changes forms from nutrients to seed to sprout to plant to tree to leaves to leaves on the ground and then to nutrients again.
Warner Philips raises a very interesting point as well, about factoring in not only the profit margins of companies and how if they sell more products that that automatically means they’ve earned more money, but that isn’t the case, with an increase in products being manufactured and sold, there is also an increase in expenses, and so factoring in all these expenses alongside these profits, there would be a fairly similar result in profits for that particular business, so in conclusion, if companies just made planned obsolescence obsolete itself, and create products that were made to last as long as possible, this would reduce costs, but most importantly, reduce the amount of waste in the world.