Cutting Insert Package With Bubble-Seat Stacking
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Solution Overview
Problem
The logistics of distributing cutting inserts for tools, particularly in varying quantities and sizes, leads to inefficiencies in storage, handling, and tracking, with existing packages being cumbersome and prone to damage during repackaging, resulting in loss of critical information.
Innovation Solution
A package design featuring two panels with protruding bubbles that allow for efficient storage and display of one or two cutting inserts, enabling space-saving stacking and reliable tracking, with features like circular contours, conical shapes, and snap mechanisms for secure closure and alignment, utilizing transparent materials for information visibility.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If traditional box packages with pigeon-holes are used for cutting inserts, then storage capacity is sufficient, but handling efficiency decreases and damage risk increases during repackaging
Solution Approach 1:
The package is divided into two separate panels (base part and cover) that can be independently handled. Each panel contains specific features (bubbles in base part, seats in cover) that enable selective engagement, allowing efficient sorting and redistribution of cutting inserts without repackaging the entire box.
Solution Approach 2:
The bubbles in the base part panel are designed to nest into the seats in the cover panel when stacked. This nested configuration allows multiple packages to be compactly stored while maintaining individual accessibility, eliminating the need for time-consuming repackaging operations.
2Adaptability or versatility
If cutting inserts are repackaged in provisional packages, then distribution flexibility improves, but information loss increases and integrity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The package design serves multiple functions: it provides secure storage for cutting inserts, maintains visibility of critical information through transparent panels, enables efficient stacking and handling through bubble-seat engagement, and allows flexible distribution configurations. The hinge mechanism allows the cover to assume multiple positions (closed, open, partially open) for different operational needs.
Solution Approach 2:
The transparent or translucent material of the panels allows visual identification of cutting insert types and quantities without opening the package. This visual information retention eliminates the need to repackage inserts for identification purposes, maintaining information integrity while enabling flexible distribution.
3Volume of stationary object
If packages are stacked close to each other for space efficiency, then storage density improves, but alignment precision decreases making stapling difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The bubble and seat features are positioned asymmetrically on the panels, with specific geometric characteristics that enable precise mutual engagement. When packages are stacked, the asymmetric features guide automatic alignment, ensuring that corresponding bubbles and seats match perfectly without requiring high-precision external alignment mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The bubble-seat engagement mechanism is self-aligning. When packages are stacked, the geometric complementarity of the bubbles and seats causes them to automatically find their correct relative positions through mutual engagement, eliminating the need for external alignment tools or high-precision positioning systems.
4Loss of information
If transparent materials are used for panel visibility, then information visibility improves, but structural strength decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The package utilizes composite construction combining transparent panels (for information visibility) with rigid structural elements (bubbles, seats, hinge mechanism). The transparent panels are strategically positioned only where visual access is needed, while the structural integrity is maintained through the rigid thermoplastic material forming the bubbles, seats, and hinge assembly. This composite approach achieves both transparency where required and strength where structural support is needed.
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3~4
Figure 5~6
AI summary
The invention concerns a package of the type that comprises two panels (1, 2), one (1) of which is included in a base part (3), which includes a bubble (9) that is intended for storage purpose and projects from an under side of the panel and comprises an opening (10) in the upper side (5) thereof, while the other panel (2) is included in a cover (4), which is connected with the base part (3) via a hinge (11) in order to be turnable between a raised position, in which the interior of the bubble (9) is accessible, and a lowered position, in which the panel (2) of the cover covers the opening (10) of the bubble (9). According to the invention, the panels (1, 2) of the base part (3) as well as of the cover (4) are formed with two seats (12a, 12b; 13a, 13b), which - in the lowered position of the cover - are laterally and equidistantly separated from the bubble (9). The package allows exposure of information relating to one or, at most, two storage objects, at the same time as it can be piled together with other packages in a compact pile.