pringles chip project

1. 1. Looking back at your project now knowing better the expectations of the project what
would you do differently?
I would definitely have my group work on the inventor drawings first because
everything went smoothly except for the inventor drawings because there were
technical errors at the last minute so I barely had time to fix them.
2. What was the most valuable feedback from the engineers about your final
presentation?
The engineers actually didn’t say much at all. We gave our presentation and they
said it was unique and good. Also they told us to keep up the good work.
3. Did each person in the group have a role and a function? What was yours? How
could you better set the roles and expectations for each group member?
We all had our roles ant contributed to as much possible. Obviously Katie had
vacation so we couldn’t really collaborate much with her but I made the shoe while
Sneha was working on the board. I glued on some pictures and I worked on inventor
drawings and exploded views. The roles were laid out fine but what made it not work
was that Katie had vacation and that caused most of our problems.
4. What was the most meaningful part of the assignment for you? How did the meaning
of the design process change for you?
The most meaningful part was when I felt very accomplished by making
handmade shoes. It felt amazing. But on the way to making the shoes, I realized that
using tire was too thick so I found car mats that were an excellent substitute.

2. So we, as a group, are going to split the work amongst each other and we have the challenge of
having to send a potato chip through the postal service. But the chip is not allowed to break and
it must be edible. We, the whole group, will try to collaborate through any method like Skype,
calling, emailing, etc. And by these methods, we will have all steps looked over by all group
members.

3. FACTORS
Durability
Accessibility of materials
Cost of materials
Weight
Size
RANK
1,2,3,4
IDEAS
Peanut butter filled box
Chip encased in stuffing and enclosed in a cage
Bags filled with air around the chip

4. FACTROS 1 2 3
Durability Can’t be broken Some materials are Flabby material.
unless with a sharp, breakable, some Really thin and breaks
blunt object. Can aren’t. Can only bend by a simple touch (or
withstand much at least 45 degreed. at least splits easily)
weight. Can bend 90 Bent less than 45
degrees or more. degrees then breaks.
Accessibility of Easy to find in and Some materials ( at Hard to find.
Materials convenience store or least about half of the Available in stores
your house. materials) are able to but not in homes..
be found at home,
some at stores.
Cost of Materials 1 dollar or less. Somewhere ranging Over 5 dollars in
between 1 to 5 approximation
dollars. Essentially
$1< $ x < $5
Weight At least 1 pound or Between 1 to 4 Over 4 pounds.
less in approximate. pounds. Essentially
1lb < xlb <5lb
Size About .25 of an inch Size between .25 in to Bigger than the actual
away from the actual 1 in space from the chip’s dimensions by
chip’s dimensions. chip. Essentially about1 inch.
0.25in < x in < 1in
IDEAS Durability Accessibility Cost of Weight Size Total
of Materials Materials
Peanut butter 2 1 2 3 2 10
filled box
Chip encased 1 1 1 1 3 7
in stuffing
and enclosed
in a cage
Bags filled 1 2 2 1 3 9
with air
around the
chip
Winner: Chip encased in stuffing and enclosed in a cage

7. Aakash Balaji
Katherine Wong
Alyssa Haselsteiner
Jordan Murphy
Pringles Project Research
The U.S. postal service, also known as USPS, is an independent agency of the United States
which delivers mail. We also discovered that the USPS went through a major change in 2010. It
installed a 5 day delivery and collection week instead of the former 6 day week; although the
post offices will still operate on Saturdays. The way the service works is customers will leave
their packages with addresses and the proper amount of stamps in a postal service delivery box
or at an office. Also there will be a fee based on the flat rate box chosen. To clarify a flat rate box
is a box in which you put your mail and ship it for a pre determined price. Then the USPS will
check the package for harmful substances and store them until the next delivery route to that
address occurs. Next the mail will be handed off to a postman or woman and be delivered via the
postal van. The vans are long life vehicles and the USPS owns over a 100,000 of them. The van
will be filled with as much mail as will fit appropriately and later taken out at the address by the
mailman or woman and given to the present party at the location. Here is a list of prices and sizes
for priority mail. We also found an online cost calculator on the USPS website that will calculate
mailing prices for us.
Priority Mail Flat Rate Envelope $4.95 12-1/2" x 9-1/2"
Priority Mail Padded Flat Rate Envelope $4.95 12-1/2" x 9-1/2"

8. Priority Mail Legal Flat Rate Envelope $4.95 15" x 9-1/2"
Priority Mail Gift Card Flat Rate Envelope $4.95 10" x 7"
Priority Mail Small Flat Rate Envelope $4.95 10" x 6"
Priority Mail Window Flat Rate Envelope $4.95 10" x 5"
Priority Mail Small Flat Rate Box $5.20 8-5/8" x 5-3/8" x 1-5/8"
Priority Mail Medium Flat Rate Box (FRB1) $10.95 11" x 8-1/2" x 5-1/2"
Priority Mail Medium Flat Rate Box (FRB2) $10.95 13-5/8" x 11-7/8" x 3-3/8"
Priority Mail Large Flat Rate Box (Domestic Addresses) $14.95 12" x 12" x 5-1/2"
Priority Mail Large Flat Rate Box (APO/FPO/DPO Destinations) $12.95 12" x 12" x 5-1/2"
USPS boxes are made of cardboard.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/will-obama-create-post-office-health-care

9. http://www.usps.com/communications/five-daydelivery/ataglance.htm
www.usps.com/prices/priority-mail-prices.htm
The materials our primary idea consists of are peanut butter and a box that fits in the allotted
box/envelope and allows for at least an inch of space in between it and the chip in all directions
when the chip is inside it. Peanut butter is a food paste made from dry roasted peanuts. The two
main categories of peanut butter are chunky and smooth. For the purposes of our project we
found that the smooth type was better suited because it is less dense and has no solids in it. To
add on peanut butter is edible so it will not compromise the edibility of the chip. Our box will be
made of cardboard and be either a prism or cube because those are the shapes that fit best in the
USPS box. We also knew that both our materials are readily available. Another primary idea we
had involves the use of polyester pillow stuffing, copper wire, and cardboard to construct a crib
for the chips. Copper wire is ductile and sturdy so it can prevent compression. Polyester pillow
stuffing is soft and firm so it can reduce strain on the chip. Polyester is a synthetic material that is
made from polyethylene terephthalate, which is essentially plastic. It is fibered, fluffed, flocked,
or clustered for use as a pillow stuffing. The cardboard is used as a base for the wires to be
placed on. Cardboard is made mostly of wood and can be made of recycled paper thus it is earth
friendly. Copper is also an abundant resource. The materials for the second idea are also
common.

10. http://www33.brinkster.com/iiiii/inventions/
http://www.varioustypes.com/pillow_stuffing
Moving on Pringles was invented by Alexander Liepa and Gene Wolfe invented the machine that
cooks them. The current owner of this brand is Proctor and Gamble. The shape of the chip is
known mathematically known as a hyperbolic paraboloid. They are shaped this way so they are
more tightly packaged. This shape is what helps protect the chips in the Pringles packaging in

11. hich they are sold due to the chips cushioning each other. In addition their slender shape makes
them very fragile.
http://www.google.com/patents?vid=3998975
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,947586,00.html
Current viable solutions include the Proctor and Gamble packaging and numerous different kinds
of chips containers. The majority of them will be able to transport chips but the chips will sustain
moderate damage. The two solutions that are most viable and used are the cylindrical plastic
container and the bag filled with air. The Pringles containers are shaped to snugly nestle the
chips and protect them by almost completely immobilizing them. As mentioned before they do
this by using the shape of the chips to fit with each other. The other solution surrounds the chips
with air to block damage.

12. Acceleration = Change in Velocity
Change in velocity = force = mass x acceleration
Distance = 9.8(acceleration due to gravity) x time squared
Next we calculated the different ways the chips could break. The first way we researched was the
relation between velocity, such as when the package is dropped, and the amount of force exerted
on the box. The force that primarily affects the object when it falls is gravity and the friction
caused by the air. Also we found the type of break that occurs in a chip is called a fracture.
Gravity is the force that is the result of the attraction of the Earth to other objects. The pull of
gravity increases as mass increases and so does the velocity. Velocity is distance divided by time
or how fast and object is going at a certain point in time. The absolute value of velocity is speed.
As velocity increases so does the speed at which the package hits the ground. The faster

13. something hits the ground the more damage it is likely to sustain. Also everything accelerates or
increases in velocity at approximately the same rate of 9.8 meter/second due to the constant pull
of gravity. Now for example if our box fell for 10 seconds without any air resistance that means
our box would hit the ground at 98 meter per second and would have fallen from 539 meters.
This is just a sample calculation to show how we can set up theoretical scenarios to predict the
kind of damage the chip would sustain. Moving on the other factor that affects the terminal
velocity or the speed at which the object hits the ground is the mass. Mass is the measure of an
object’s resistance to being put in motion or, if moving, its resistance to being stopped. This
other variable will make the object fall faster when heavier and fall slower when lighter because
weight increases as mass increases. A factor that can help reduce terminal velocity is increased
surface are on an object. Increased surface are on an object creates more friction with the air and
slows the speed of impact.
http://www.sv.vt.edu/classes/MSE2094_NoteBook/97ClassProj/exper/halahan/www/halahan.html
www.eeescience.utoledo.edu/Faculty/.../Physical.Chap01.gravity1.ppt
http://www.racemath.info/forcesandpressure/what_is_f=ma.htm

14. We also explored other possible material for our project such as plastic wrap, bubble wrap, and
packing peanuts but we did not use these because we found peanut butter to be better. The most
commonly used shrink wrap is a polyolefin. It is available in a variety of thicknesses, clarities,
strengths and shrink ratios. A shrink film can be made to shrink in one direction (unidirectional
or mono-directional) or in both directions (bidirectional). Films are stretched when they are
warm to orient the molecules from their initial random pattern. Cooling the film sets the film's
characteristics until it is reheated: this causes it to shrink back toward its initial dimensions. All
these factors make plastic wrap seem like a good option but plastic wrap requires controlled heat
and accuracy to use. This means if wrapped incorrectly our chip would be crushed by the wrap
itself so we determined that it was not suited for this project. Next we saw that bubble wrap is
durable, lightweight, and helps fill voids in boxes to prevent movement. Another benefit it
provides is shock absorbance but we rejected this material because if it likely to compress the
chip and break it during turbulent shipping. This is mainly due to the odd shape of the chip. The
bubble wrap does not mold to the chip’s unique ship like peanut butter does. Packing peanuts are
mostly made from recycled polystyrene or starch and come in various shapes and sizes. However
they are not easily accessible or cost efficient.
http://www.usps.com/nationalpremieraccounts/bundlepreparationguidelines.htm
http://www.theofficeguide.com/bubble-packaging/
http://www.officedepot.com/a/browse/packing-
materials/N=5+3972/;jsessionid=0000ypeDnmnpbWPOa224VYoXpip:13ddq0tfm