Primary Packaging with Contoured Surfaces for Horizontal Stacking
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Solution Overview
Problem
The challenge lies in creating environmentally friendly packaging that reduces or eliminates secondary packaging for consumer products like OTC drug products while ensuring sufficient surface area for regulatory information and providing stability and comfort for horizontal stacking and handling.
Innovation Solution
A primary package with a quadrilateral cross-section and contoured surfaces is designed to facilitate horizontal stacking, featuring interlocking mechanisms and debossed or embossed shapes for improved grasping and lateral stability, along with a display tray to maintain product visibility and identification.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If primary packaging with curved or rounded side walls is used, then the package is comfortable to hold in the user's hand, but the outer surface area of secondary packaging must be greater than necessary to enclose the primary packaging
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies curvature to the primary packaging container to improve handling comfort, while the secondary packaging uses flat surfaces to minimize material usage. The curved primary package is designed to fit comfortably in the hand, while the flat-walled secondary package reduces the outer surface area and eliminates wasted space between packaging layers.
2Loss of substance
If secondary packaging is eliminated to reduce materials, then environmental friendliness and cost are improved, but sufficient surface area for regulatory information cannot be provided
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from two-dimensional label placement on curved surfaces to utilizing the three-dimensional flat surfaces of the secondary packaging container. The flat side walls and bottom of the secondary package provide extensive areas for displaying all required regulatory information, including Drug Facts, warnings, and usage instructions, eliminating the need for excessive labeling on curved primary packages.
3Stability of the object's composition
If primary packages with convexly-curved side walls are stacked horizontally, then interlocking features may be provided, but lateral stabilization is still insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs asymmetric flat surfaces on the secondary packaging container, with specific sides designed for stacking and others for display. The flat bottom and vertical side walls create inherent geometric stability when stacked horizontally, eliminating the need for complex interlocking features while providing robust lateral stabilization through the rigid flat-walled structure.
Data Source
AI summary
Primary packages configured for display and sale without secondary packaging are stacked horizontally in a product display tray. The consumer-facing surface of the back panel of the product display tray may contain graphics including product information provided on the primary package's principal display panel (which is typically faced towards consumers). Thus, consumers may readily view the product information provided on the principal display panel as primary packages are removed from the product display tray and principal display panels of remaining primary packages are hidden from view by one or more walls of the product display tray. The individual primary packages may be contoured specifically to inhibit lateral relative shifting while in a horizontally stacked configuration. The individual primary packages may shaped to facilitate grasping by having a first surface contoured for grasping in the user's palm, a second surface opposite the first surface with molded branding information for engagement by a portion of the user's fingers. Molded branding information may be positioned on a surface of the primary package that faces upwardly when the primary packages are positioned in the product display tray.