Biodegradable Paper Jar with Permeation Barrier Coating
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current biodegradable containers for semi-solid materials are not effective in maintaining a sealed environment, as they are either not air-tight or water-tight, leading to leakage or evaporation, and often use non-biodegradable components like plastic caps or wax coatings that are not sustainable.
Innovation Solution
A biodegradable container with a fibrous outer and inner wall, both treated with a permeation barrier material to prevent leakage and evaporation, featuring a rigid structure and a design that includes a separate cap and bottom for enhanced sealing, ensuring the container remains sealed over time.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If a paper container is used to be biodegradable, then environmental sustainability is improved, but the container becomes permeable to air and water causing leakage and evaporation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies composite materials by combining biodegradable paperboard with a biodegradable polymer coating. The paperboard provides structural integrity and biodegradability, while the polymer coating layer provides moisture and vapor barrier properties. This composite structure resolves the contradiction by maintaining both environmental sustainability and sealing performance through the synergistic combination of two different materials.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses a thin film polymer coating applied to the interior surface of the paperboard container. This flexible film layer creates an impermeable barrier against moisture and vapor while conforming to the container's shape. The thin film structure provides effective sealing without adding significant weight or complexity to the biodegradable container system.
2Reliability
If plastic caps or wax coatings are used to seal the container, then sealing performance is improved, but biodegradability is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the chemical composition parameter of the sealing material from conventional non-biodegradable plastics or waxes to specifically selected biodegradable polymers. By selecting polymers with appropriate molecular weight, crystallinity, and hydrophobicity parameters, the container achieves effective sealing performance while maintaining the ability to biodegrade under composting conditions, thus resolving the contradiction between sealing and biodegradability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs a disposable biodegradable polymer coating that provides temporary but effective sealing during the product's shelf life and usage. The coating is designed to fulfill its sealing function throughout the intended lifecycle of the container and then decompose naturally, accepting short-term functional performance in exchange for long-term environmental sustainability.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If paper material is used for the container, then biodegradability is improved, but the container cannot hold liquids or semi-solids for extended periods
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a composite container system where biodegradable paperboard serves as the structural body and a biodegradable polymer coating provides the barrier function. This composite structure enables the container to maintain liquids and semi-solids for extended storage durations by preventing permeation, while the entire structure remains biodegradable as both components can decompose under appropriate conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The polymer coating acts as an intermediary layer between the paperboard structure and the stored product. This intermediate barrier layer prevents direct contact between the hygroscopic paper material and the liquid or semi-solid contents, thereby preventing saturation and leakage while extending storage duration. The intermediary coating maintains the biodegradable nature of the overall system.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution provides a biodegradable container that effectively maintains a sealed environment for semi-solid materials, significantly extending their shelf-life and reducing waste by using entirely biodegradable components that prevent leakage and evaporation.
Implementation Method 1
At least portions of the inner surfaces of each of the inner and outer walls include a permeation barrier material
Implementation Method 2
maintaining a sealed environment for semi-solid materials, significantly extending their shelf-life and reducing waste by using entirely biodegradable components that prevent leakage and evaporation
Data Source
AI summary
A biodegradable jar has an enclosure wall with a cap that form ajar that holds a semi-solid material. In order to prevent the biodegradable wall from being weakened by the semi-solid material in the jar, both an exterior surface and an interior surface of the wall and the cap include a permeation barrier material that substantially prevents the semi-solid material from seeping through the walls of the jar. The enclosure wall could have an inner wall that is shorter than the outer wall which forms a ledge that a separate cover for the semi-solid material could rest upon.