Packaging

1-2 Paint™ paint bucket

The Flexa paint bucket 1-2 Paint™ has been developed by FLEX/the INNOVATIONLAB® in cooperation with BPO. FLEX is responsible for the concept and design of this unique paint bucket, which uses the inside of the lid as a paint tray. With this design feature, pouring the paint from the bucket into a separate paint tray is a thing of the past and leftover paint flows right back into the bucket during painting and after closing the lid.
BPO has analyzed the plastic bucket for a stacking load (60 [kg] for 1 [year]) and for a shaking load (300 [kg] for 3 [min]) incorporating its non-linearity and creep behavior in Finite Element Analyses.

After the objectives were set and the first reference analyses were made, the reference analyses showed a plastic deformation of the bucket and failure caused by buckling of both the bucket and the rim of the lid. Because the first calculations were made in an early stage of the development adequate measures could be taken to improve the design, within the boundaries set at the time.

A flexible and phased optimization and cooperation resulted in an improvement of the stacking and shaking loads of about 160 [%]. This way the requirements were met.

Within this project, based on FEM analyses, BPO has suggested both a change of materials and geometric changes to improve strength and stiffness of the design. Thanks to the analyses and design review FLEX/the INNOVATIONLAB® has been able to provide its client with a successful product combining the highest possible strength with the least amount of material.