Packaging Drawer With Extended Lateral Wall Portions
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing packaging solutions for elongated objects, such as cigars or cosmetics sticks, face issues with drawer jamming and product damage due to free edges during sliding and tilting, leading to handling problems and potential damage to fragile items.
Innovation Solution
The packaging design features a drawer with extended longitudinal portions on the lateral walls beyond the articulation axis, allowing for smooth sliding and tilting without interference, and optional features like parallel panels and excess thickness for enhanced stability and protection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If the drawer is designed with a simple structure without extended portions on lateral walls, then the manufacturing process is simpler, but the drawer experiences jamming during sliding and tilting operations
Solution Approach 1:
The lateral wall is divided into two segments: a first portion and a second portion that extends beyond the first portion in the longitudinal direction. This segmentation allows the second portion to act as a guide during sliding operations while the first portion maintains structural simplicity, resolving the contradiction between manufacturing simplicity and operational ease.
Solution Approach 2:
The extension of the lateral wall in the longitudinal dimension (creating the second portion) provides additional guidance functionality without significantly increasing complexity in the transverse dimension. This dimensional extension solves the jamming issue while maintaining manufacturing feasibility.
2Device complexity
If the drawer lacks extended longitudinal portions on lateral walls, then the structure is simpler, but products are damaged due to free edges during tilting
Solution Approach 1:
The second portion of the lateral wall acts as an intermediary protective element between the free edge and the products. During tilting operations, this extended portion guides and protects products from contact with potentially damaging edges, eliminating the harmful effect without requiring complex protective structures.
3Ease of manufacture
If the drawer uses standard lateral wall design without extensions, then manufacturing is easier, but the drawer experiences instability when packaging is full
Solution Approach 1:
The second portion of the lateral wall is pre-configured to extend beyond the first portion, providing preliminary guidance and stability structure before the packaging is filled. This pre-designed extension ensures stable operation even when the packaging is full, without requiring additional complex stabilization mechanisms.
Data Source
AI summary
A packaging (14) includes a case (12) and a drawer (10). The drawer (10) has a rear wall (18) and two opposite lateral walls and further has an articulated upper portion and a lower portion. Upper and lower parts of the same lateral wall are disjointed to allow toggling of the upper portion of the drawer relative to the lower portion. At least one of the lower part and the upper part of each lateral wall has an extension (26ap, 26bp) which extends longitudinally towards the other part such that the extension (26ap, 26bp) extends parallel opposite the other part of the lateral wall for all configurations of the two portions of the drawer between an aligned configuration and a useful tilted configuration of the drawer.