Molded Paper Pulp (MPP) is a form of packaging that has become widely used because of the environmental and economic benefits. The most common MPP design method would be creating different prototypes based on the engineer’s knowledge and experience and analyzing each model to determine which model has the best design. However, this trial-and-error design method is a costly and time-consuming process. To overcome these drawbacks, topology optimization will be looked at being incorporated into the MPP design process. Topology optimization is a structure optimization method based on a Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and a sensitivity analysis. It has been widely used in various industries because of the design efficiency. However, the topology optimization method has not been applied into the packaging industry. The main reason is because of the limited design space of packaging and manufacturability. This thesis presents a methodology to find the optimal design of the MPP using the topology optimization method and post processing. First, the critical area is defined using a topology optimization result under a given boundary condition. Second, the topology optimization results will be superimposed to the MPP design space again. Lastly, the supporting rib structure will be added to finalize the MPP design process. Once the design is completed, the optimal design is compared to the original design to evaluate the improvement. In this thesis, MPP wine shipper is used as an example. The proposed method was able to present a new design using the topology optimization method. To demonstrate the efficiency of the new design, FEA results are presented, and the new design shows a lower stress concentration compared to the typical MPP wine shipper design in the market.
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