Large bending behavior of creased paperboard. I. Experimental investigations

The large bending behavior of a creased paperboard is studied in the range of rotation theta is an element of [0 degrees, 180 degrees] - new results, apparently not reported previously in literature - with the aim to point out some crucial aspect involved in an adaptive robotic manipulation of the industrial cartons. The loading tests show a great variability of the mechanical behavior, depending dramatically on the crease indentation depth (also for the specimens obtained from the same carton): (a) when the damage induced during the crease formation is relatively small, the bending response is unusually complex: the moment constitutive function, m(L)(theta), presents (up to) two peaks followed by unstable branches; (b) for greater indentation, the m(L)(theta) is monotone. In the unloading case the response m(U)(theta) is always monotone and is practically independent of the formation conditions of the crease. These behaviors can be easily described analytically using (piecewise) third degree splines. In a companion paper, the erection of a typical carton corner with unstable constitutive behavior is fully analyzed to detect the possible criticalities. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.