Carded Product Package with Support Struts for Display Stability

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Solution Overview

Problem

Carded products, such as blister packs and frozen foods, tend to become displaced within their packages when handled by customers, requiring costly and time-consuming upkeep and reorganization by retailers to maintain an aesthetically pleasing display.

Innovation Solution

A retail ready package formed from a die-cut cardboard blank with specific foldable and separable panels and support struts that allow carded products to be maintained in a spaced relationship, transitioning from a shipping configuration to a retail-ready display configuration through the separation of perforated tear lines, ensuring products remain upright and organized.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of manufacture

If carded products are packaged in traditional shipping containers, then shipping and storage are simplified, but the products become displaced when handled by customers requiring frequent reorganization

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveshipping and storage simplicityVSAvoidreorganization time
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of manufactureVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The package is divided into multiple compartments with dividers that create individual slots for each carded product. This segmentation prevents products from moving and displacing during customer handling, eliminating the need for frequent reorganization while maintaining simple shipping and storage capabilities.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The package structure is pre-configured with dividers and compartments during manufacturing that automatically maintain product positioning. This preliminary arrangement of structural elements ensures products remain in place during customer interaction, preventing the need for subsequent reorganization efforts.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

2Ease of operation

If carded products are allowed to move freely in the package, then customer access is easier, but products become disorganized and aesthetically displeasing

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecustomer accessVSAvoidproduct organization
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of operationVSStability of the object's composition

Solution Approach 1:

The package incorporates localized structural features such as dividers and compartments at specific locations where products are most prone to displacement. These localized elements provide just enough constraint to maintain organization while leaving sufficient space for customer access and product removal.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Solution Approach 2:

Dividers and compartment walls act as intermediary elements between the products and the package interior space. These intermediaries maintain product organization by providing physical separation and positioning, while still allowing customers to access and remove products as needed.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Stability of the object's composition

If rigid structures are used to maintain product positioning, then products remain stable, but the package becomes complex and costly to manufacture

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveproduct positioning stabilityVSAvoidpackage structure complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Stability of the object's compositionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The package employs dynamic structural elements such as foldable dividers and flexible compartments that can adapt to different product configurations. These elements provide stable product positioning when needed while remaining simple and cost-effective to manufacture through their ability to be collapsed or reconfigured.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #15Dynamics

Solution Approach 2:

The package utilizes thin divider walls and flexible compartment structures made from lightweight materials that provide sufficient rigidity to maintain product positioning stability. These thin-film structures achieve the required stability without adding significant complexity or manufacturing cost compared to traditional rigid structures.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #30Flexible shells and thin films

Data Source

PatentEP3750820B1Retail ready package for carded products
Publication Date: 2022.03.09 WESTROCK SHARED SERVICES LLC
  • EP3750820B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3750820B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP3750820B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

A retail ready cardboard package for shipping and displaying carded products is disclosed, which includes interior support struts (38, 40) having longitudinally extending lateral rail portions (42, 44) that have a plurality of longitudinally spaced apart transverse slots (42b, 44b) formed therein for accommodating and retaining the carded products and related blank therefore.