Methods for digitally designing preforms and molding instructions for bottles

A method for producing a bottle preform and a blow molding recipe for the bottle preform, the method comprising:

• creating a bottle preform design based on a natural stretch ratio of a material to be used to create the bottle preform and specifications for a bottle to be created from the bottle preform;
• creating a first set of blow molding experiments for blow molding the bottle preform design into a target bottle design, each experiment having a different set of blow molding parameters;
• simulating each experiment of the first set of blow molding experiments using a simulation software program;
• selecting a group of experiments from the first set of blow molding experiments based on downselection criteria,
• wherein the downselection criteria comprises:
• a wall thickness of a simulated blown bottle,
• a section weight of the simulated blown bottle, and
• an elastic modulus×wall thickness value of the simulated blown bottle;
• creating a second set of blow molding experiments based on characteristics of the downselected group of first experiments,
• wherein a bottle preform inner diameter value is the same for each experiment of the second set of blow molding experiments, and wherein a bottle preform outer diameter value is not the same for each experiment of the second set of blow molding experiments;
• selecting an experiment from the second set of blow molding experiments based on characteristics of the selected experiment's simulated preform and simulated blown bottle,
• wherein the characteristics of the selected experiment's simulated preform and simulated blown bottle include preform weight, simulated bottle wall thickness, and breadth of process window;
• and
• producing blow molding instructions based on the selected experiment.

A method for creating blow molding experiments, the method comprising:

• a downselecting method comprising:
• determining acceptable ranges for minimum wall thickness, section weight, and elastic modulus×wall thickness for a bottle,
• comparing wall thickness values of a first set of bottle-blowing simulation experiments to the acceptable range for wall thickness to identify a first qualifying set of experiments,
• comparing section weight values of the first qualifying set of experiments to the acceptable range for section weight to identify a second qualifying set of experiments, and
• comparing elastic modulus×wall thickness values of the second qualifying set of experiments to the acceptable range for elastic modulus×wall thickness to identify a third qualifying set of experiments;
• and
• creating a second set of blow molding experiments based on characteristics of the third qualifying set of experiments.