A Checklist for Plastic Product Design: Preventing Pitfalls in a Design Process and Premature Failures of Plastic Products

Abstract: Designing an injection molded plastic part requires optimizing the part with respect to various stakeholders’ needs throughout its life cycle. The conditions in which a product is operating in service are often inadequately understood or specified, resulting in wrong material selection, which in turn leads to failure when the product is used. Many aspects interrelate with the initial part design and the essential rules of each should be taken into account to ensure a well-functioning plastic product. Regardless, a part design often passes sequentially from concept development to the manufacturing phase with features that unnecessarily complicate production, add costs and weaken the intended embodiment of the product. Therefore, a checklist was developed to ensure that oversights do not happen and verify that a design fulfills the requirements set for it. The commissioning company in the project was the design office Sytyte Oy. The aim of this thesis work was to investigate the effects of design decisions on the product’s feasibility and performance in service. The study focused on the underlying reasons for failures in plastic products, failure phenomena and ways of preventing them. The project started with literature research. To support the theoretical review, a small-scale survey was conducted among operators in plastic industry in Finland to strengthen the outcome of the project. The findings from the research were compiled into a checklist. The approach into the list was adopted from the FMEA method aiming to create a stripped-down version of it. The result offers a tool for anticipating and spotting possible failures by bringing up the influences that most frequently affect the part performance. It contributes to preventing delays in processing and premature failures in service. The checklist was verified by specialist consultation to receive suggestions and requirements for improvements and to ensure its reliability.