Product Design
Redesign of Plastic Pail to Eliminate Failure
By Dr. Duane Priddy Sr. · Published December 19, 2018
Pictured: A three-dimensional rendering of a red plastic pail with a metal handle, against a black background
Dr. Duane Priddy, Plastic Expert Group
Plastic five-gallon pails, with handles attached, are used extensively. Our client manufactures these pails and was experiencing occasional failure at the point of attachment of the handle to the side of the pail. Our experts evaluated the current design and performed computer modeling using finite element analysis (FEA) to redesign the handle and eliminate the failures.
Figure 1. The FEA analysis shows the stress concentration in the current design.
Figure 2. The handle attachment was redesigned to distribute the stress and eliminate failure.
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