Container Carrier Bottom Panel Engagement for Crate Stability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing carriers for containers lack effective features for securely holding and displaying multiple containers, particularly during transport, and do not efficiently engage with outer crates or containers to prevent shifting and damage.
Innovation Solution
A carrier design featuring foldable panels with locking and system engagement features, including lines of weakening to define separable sections, which securely hold containers and engage with outer containers using posts for stability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If carriers use simple flat bottom panels, then manufacturing is easy, but carriers cannot securely engage with outer containers to prevent shifting
Solution Approach 1:
The bottom panel is divided into multiple separable sections defined by lines of weakening. These sections can independently engage with posts in the outer container, providing stable engagement while maintaining manufacturing simplicity through die-cutting techniques.
Solution Approach 2:
The bottom panel transitions from a rigid flat structure to a dynamic structure with fold lines and separable sections. This allows the panel to adapt its shape during engagement with the outer container while maintaining ease of manufacture through standard folding and cutting processes.
2Adaptability or versatility
If carriers use rigid non-separable bottom panels, then structural strength is high, but engagement with outer containers lacks adaptability
Solution Approach 1:
The bottom panel is segmented into multiple sections that can separately engage with posts in the outer container. This segmentation provides adaptability to different container configurations while maintaining overall structural strength through the distributed engagement points.
Solution Approach 2:
The separable sections of the bottom panel can nest around posts in the outer container, allowing the carrier to adapt to the outer container's structure while maintaining structural integrity through the interlocking engagement.
3Ease of manufacture
If carriers lack lines of weakening, then bottom panel structural integrity is maintained, but engagement features cannot be separably formed
Solution Approach 1:
Lines of weakening are pre-formed in the bottom panel during manufacturing, allowing the engagement features to be easily separated and formed during assembly. This preliminary action maintains bottom panel integrity during storage while enabling easy engagement formation during use.
Solution Approach 2:
The bottom panel's physical state is changed by introducing lines of weakening that allow controlled separation. These lines maintain overall panel integrity while enabling local separability for engagement feature formation through standard die-cutting processes.
Data Source
AI summary
A carrier for holding a plurality of containers includes a plurality of panels extending at least partially around an interior of the carrier, the plurality of panels including a plurality of side panels and at least one bottom panel foldably connected to a respective panel of the plurality of panels, locking features in the at least one bottom panel for at least partially maintaining a formed configuration of the carrier, and a plurality of system engagement features for at least partially receiving a portion of an outer container, each system engagement feature having a plurality of lines of weakening defining a plurality of separably connected sections in the at least one bottom panel.