GLASS BOWLS
OXO
— PROJECT NAME
OXO Glass Bowls
— ROLE
Product Engineer
— DATE
Fall 2016
Molding and tempering glass was a new process for me. I quickly learned how glass molding works, and the inherent large tolerance issues with the process.
The lids were a challenge in simplicity. They needed to be very low cost, food safe, 1 piece, seal the container, and accommodate large variations in bowl tolerance.
I tracked down a proprietary PP+TPE Blend that was made for a competitor glass bowl lid. While in China I brought together a representative from the material company, the lid manufacturer, the bowl manufacturer and a 50 pound bag of the proprietary plastic. We shot some samples and it met all of the tolerance requirements.
Personal Contributions
- Material Selection and Identification – Tracked down a custom blend of PP and TPE specifcally used for large tolerance sealing applications
Factory and Supplier Integration – brought together special material, materials engineers, and two factory bosses in China together in one place to solve the problems
Statistical Tolerance Analysis – Understanding and designing around large variation between production runs
Non Linear FEA – Modeling large displacements in plastic lids
Strategic Mold Design – Used slides and inserts to allow design flexibility
