Collapsible Liquid Package Stacking Stability

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative Solutions
Generate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Collapsible liquid packages face challenges in stacking and transportation due to lack of rigidity, leading to wear and potential leakage during transport.

Innovation Solution

A packing unit comprising collapsible packages with upwardly tapering shapes, arranged in alternating orientations and covered with a plastic film that provides dimensional stability through fewer elongate sealing portions, allowing for stable stacking and reduced risk of damage or leakage during transport.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If collapsible packages are packed together in a cardboard box for transport, then the packages can be transported, but vibrations and forces during transport cause wear and potential leakage

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvepackage integrityVSAvoidwear and leakage during transport
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The plastic film cover is applied to the group of packages before transport, creating a protective barrier that cushions and stabilizes the packages against vibrations and forces during transportation, preventing wear and leakage

Inventive Principle:
Principle #11Beforehand cushioning (Prior cushioning)

Solution Approach 2:

A plastic film cover is used to surround the group of packages, providing a flexible protective enclosure that maintains package stability during transport while accommodating the collapsible nature of the packages

Inventive Principle:
Principle #30Flexible shells and thin films

2Ease of manufacture

If collapsible packages are made of flexible plastic film material, then the packages have low weight and efficient production, but the packages lack rigid quality and cannot be stacked one over another

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveproduction efficiencyVSAvoidstackability
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of manufactureVSStability of the object's composition

Solution Approach 1:

Multiple collapsible packages are merged into a single packing unit by arranging them in a group and surrounding them with a plastic film cover, creating a stable composite structure that can be stacked and transported as one unit

Inventive Principle:
Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Solution Approach 2:

The packages are arranged in a specific three-dimensional configuration within the packing unit, with packages positioned in layers and orientations that provide stability and enable stacking, transforming the unstable individual packages into a stable group structure

Inventive Principle:
Principle #17Another dimension (Dimensionality change)

3Stability of the object's composition

If packages are arranged with alternating orientations in a packing unit, then the packing unit achieves dimensional stability, but the arrangement complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedimensional stabilityVSAvoidarrangement complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Stability of the object's compositionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The group of packages is segmented into packages with alternating orientations, where odd-numbered packages face one direction and even-numbered packages face the opposite direction, creating a stable interlocking arrangement that distributes forces evenly

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

Packages within the group are arranged with asymmetric orientations relative to each other, with alternating packages facing opposite directions, creating a balanced yet complex structure that achieves dimensional stability

Inventive Principle:
Principle #4Asymmetry

Data Source

PatentEP2346745B1Packing unit, shipping unit and a method of manufacturing a packing unit
Publication Date: 2013.06.19 ECOLEAN AB
  • EP2346745B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP2346745B1 patent drawingFigure 2a~2b
  • EP2346745B1 patent drawingFigure 3a~3c

AI summary

The invention relates to a packing unit (4) comprising a group of packages (1) filled with a liquid product which are of the collapsible type and comprise a bottom wall and two opposite side walls, which packages (1) in their upright position have an upwardly tapering shape, characterised in that the packages (1) are so arranged that each package (1) has a side wall facing a bottom o the packing unit (4), the packages (1) are stacked one over another in a plurality of layers with a plurality of packages (1) in each layer, the packages (1) having an alternating orientation in a first direction and a second direction opposite to the first direction and the packages (1) of an individual layer having a uniform orientation in the first or the second direction, and a plastic film cover (5) which at least partly surrounds the group of packages (1) for providing dimensional stability to the packing unit (4), the plastic film cover (5) being made of a web of plastic film material which has been joined together along four or fewer elongate sealing portions for forming said plastic film cover, and a shipping unit and a method of manufacturing said packing unit. The application also includes a shipping unit and a method of manufacturing a packing unit.