Quality by design of optimum parameter to minimize the weight of plastic products

Abstract

The research aims to control product quality off-line (quality by design) in producing lightweight plastic products for food packaging. The lightweight product is very profitable for the producers due to the efficient production costs. Quality by design was done by designing controlled parameters in the plastic molding process which includes clamping force, holding time, injection pressure, injection speed and injection temperature and their interactions. The plastic material that is made observable is Polypropylene (PP). The response parameter in this study is the weight of the product. The parameter design method used was Factorial Experiment Design with 5 independent variables with different levels of variation. The results showed that the combination of injection temperature and holding time had a significant effect on product weight. To produce heavier products that are in the area above the holding time of 0.4 seconds at any injection temperature. Meanwhile, to produce a lightweight product (under 43 grams) is at a combination of injection temperature below 263 C and holding time of about 0.3 seconds. The standard weight of the product on the plain bucket food packaging for this yogurt container is 42.5 gram.