In this learning report I will be discussing the research I had
conducted and how this has led to the decisions I made to create my final
practical piece.
To begin with I went around my local supermarket to see what is
already available. My conclusion was simple, they were all very similar in
shape and style. A handle at the top, all using just one piece of cardboard
that is folded and stuck together, using glue for the structure to be able to
hold the weight of the bottles. Through my research I only found one carrier
that supported six bottles of which also had the thinnest cardboard which I
thought was strange but it still worked.
I also dissected a few bottle carriers so I could get an inside
and hands on approach of carriers that are already being used. This enabled me
to see nets once deconstructed. The one piece of packaging that only used one
strip of glue the least amount was also the only one that used a separate
plastic handle whereas the rest used multiple strips of glue and the handle was
attached to the cardboard as on piece. This suggests that the glue is used to
hold the weight of the bottles, but using a stronger material that is separate
to the net also works just as well. But you could argue which is more harm to
the environment, which I would say the packaging that used more glue as you can
easily separate the plastic handle from the cardboard, and recycle where
appropriate.
As well as researching into cider and ale carriers, I also wanted
to look at wine bottle packaging, as this can be more stylish and refined. This
really opened my eyes to different ways of making packaging into a nice looking
way of transporting the bottles.
The first prototype of the carrier design at first glance was a success.
The finished product worked out the way I wanted it to work and look. The idea
was to have a box with doors that open either side of the box which opens up to
a window that shows off the product inside, like the client wanted. But
unfortunately when I made a 3D version, I found that couldn’t make enough
attachments for the box to stay together and be strong enough to hold the
weight of six bottles. This was a massive flaw, which showed me that I needed
to think a lot more in depth into my designs and so I went back to the drawing
board to rethink my ideas.
The idea that I have taken forward into my final design was
actually adapted version of my own comic book box I used to store my comics in
which I had brought a couple of years ago. The box has a double layer of card
at the bottom, which helps support heavy objects. The original however used
glue on the one side of the net that I decided to take put and see if I could
find a better, glue-less solution. I managed this by using a slot technique where
the tab is scored on either side which folds out on the other side to be wider
than the slot so it doesn’t fall back through. This has worked out very well
and seems to be strong enough as a subtitle to the glue.
The handle has been made stronger through the use of the slotting
technique. This was found out through trial and error, as a previous idea was
to have layers of cardboard that wrap around each other each other. This seemed
like a good idea, until I put it into practice and put weight in the box, and
this is where the handle seemed to struggle and the box started to buckle in on
itself. This led me to look else where for handle ideas, and I found this
slotting technique, which meant that I had to add to extra tabs onto the sides
that slot over the handle, to create a more stable carrier. I feel that making
sure the bottom of the box and the handle of carrier as strong as I could
without using excess materials, it would give the best support for the products
it has to carry.
Raffia
Secondary Use
Improvements
Conclusion
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