Cigarette Pack Dimensional Stability and Opening Aid Design
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional cigarette packs, such as soft cup packs, lack dimensional stability and ease of handling, and often require folding flaps for closure, which can be cumbersome.
Innovation Solution
A cigarette pack design using stronger packaging material like thin cardboard or thick paper (135 g/m² to 150 g/m²) with a closed end wall and a closure label made of clear or transparent film, featuring a tax band as a separate adhesive strip, and an opening aid with a perforated tab to mimic the appearance of a soft cup pack while enhancing structural integrity and ease of opening.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If conventional soft cup pack materials are used, then the pack is flexible and easy to manufacture, but the dimensional stability and handling are poor
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the material parameter from thin flexible paper to thicker, stronger paper (135-150 g/m²), fundamentally altering the physical properties to achieve dimensional stability while maintaining the soft cup pack structure and manufacturing process
Solution Approach 2:
The invention uses composite construction by combining the stronger paper material with the traditional soft cup pack design elements (folding flaps, closure bands), creating a hybrid structure that achieves rigidity where needed while maintaining flexibility in other areas
2Reliability
If folding flaps are used for closure, then the pack can be sealed, but the opening process becomes cumbersome
Solution Approach 1:
The patent incorporates a perforated opening aid tab that预先 provides a designated breaking point, allowing the closure band to be easily torn open without requiring the consumer to manually manipulate folding flaps, thus maintaining closure reliability while dramatically improving opening ease
Solution Approach 2:
The opening aid tab serves as an intermediary element between the closure band and the consumer's fingers, providing a mechanical advantage point that makes it easier to initiate the opening action without directly handling the tight closure flaps
3Stability of the object's composition
If the pack is made from stronger material, then the dimensional stability improves, but the material weight increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent optimizes the material weight parameter by selecting paper with specific grammage (135-150 g/m²), which is thick enough to provide dimensional stability but not excessively heavy, achieving a balance between stability and weight
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3
Figure 4~5
AI summary
A cigarette pack consisting of stiffer or more dimensionally-stable, i.e. thicker paper has a closed end wall (16) that is devoid of folded tabs. In order to create the appearance of a cigarette pack of the soft-pack type, the end wall (16) is provided with printed and/or embossed designs, which convey the image of an (exposed) end face of a tin-foil wrapped bundle or cigarette bundle. The pack has an opening aid in the region of the end wall (16), which aid can be at least peeled from the end wall.