Push Up Development:
I worked on the push-up design for bottles, focusing on analyzing and testing various variations to identify the most effective solution. Through careful evaluation, I considered factors such as durability, and design for manufacturing, to ensure the design met both practical and functional requirements. The process involved testing multiple prototypes to find the optimal design that enhanced the user experience and ensured reliable performance.
Radox had a 1-liter PP bottle continually failing 1-meter drop tests. A year of changes to process and trying different plastics led to no improvement. Packaging asked me to get involved, so I and CAE were tasked to find a solution from a structural point of view.
The Challenge:
CAE Analysis Of Original Design & Final Design
Original Pushup
New Pushup
The Solution:
After researching a library of push ups with low failure rates and defined push ups with minimal stress points and soft edges, I engineered a new push up. Cycling between CAE testing & design, we were able to validate this as the final design.
CAE fingerprinted materials to mirror real world performance, reducing the need for real world drop tests. This work led to further validate Unilever’s Standard Pushup design for all bottles.
Final Outcome:
Developed a proven in-house “push up” expertise
Created a “how to” that other designers could follow to recreate the pushup
Propagated this design knowledge across categories
This led to a “drag and drop” UDF for Siemens NX that dropped “push up” development time from hours to minutes.
Bottle designs were sent to suppliers with a fully validated “push up”.
This design ultimately resulted in more resilient product packaging.