Science and ENgineering Concepts Investigated
For our product, we had to familiarize ourselves with the different methods of plastic production and molding. Since our product is a modified version of a peanut butter jar, we had to find the best methods of producing a jar and custom lid out of plastic quickly and for cheap. After some research, we came up with two main methods of producing plastic products that would work well for our design. The first method that we would be using to produce the jar itself would be blow molding. Blow molding is a method that uses air pressure to expand the plastic inside of the a mold, and leaves a hollow shape when the molding is over. This method is mainly used for containers and other bottles. Our other method of production would be injection molding. Injection molding can use a mold of almost any shape, and the plastic is dispersed into the mold evenly. This method of production is mainly used for the mass production of smaller plastic products, and we would use this method to produce our container lids for our jar.
Sources - http://www.starmould.com/the-main-methods-of-manufacturing-plastic-products/
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/methods-manufacturing-plastic-72181.html
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/methods-manufacturing-plastic-72181.html
Prototype Construction Testing and Gathering Stage Description
To go about creating our concept into a usable prototype, we plan to design our product in the CAD program Inventor. Once we design the product, we will use our Engineering Program's 3D printer to create our first prototypes. We plan on testing our prototype by acquiring peanut butter, putting the peanut butter into our jar, and seeing how well it does the job of extracting all the peanut butter. As for data, we can easily weigh/ measure out the amount of peanut butter we use, how much is extracted, and how much is left inside the jar.
List of Experts/Advisors
Dan Fischer - Entrepreneur, (multiple) business owner, inventor.
Software, Technology, and Equipment
Autodesk Inventor Pro 2016
Dimension SST 1200 3D Printer
Dimension SST 1200 3D Printer