Egg Container Receptacles With Orientation Guidance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Egg containers fail to maintain the uniform orientation of eggs during shipment and handling, leading to increased risk of breakage and contamination, as well as inefficiencies in marking and displaying freshness dates and traceability information.
Innovation Solution
The development of egg containers with receptacles that guide eggs into a uniform tilted orientation, using guidance features such as railing elements and protrusions, to maintain their position during handling and shipping, and the use of an orienter mechanism to adjust egg positions for consistent marking.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If eggs are placed in conventional containers without orientation guidance, then the container structure is simple, but the eggs shift and change orientation during shipping and handling, leading to breakage and contamination
Solution Approach 1:
The container is divided into multiple individual receptacles, each designed to hold a single egg in a specific orientation. This segmentation allows each egg to be independently positioned and stabilized, preventing shifts during handling while maintaining an overall simple container structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The receptacles incorporate localized orientation guidance features such as tilted bottoms, railing elements, and protrusions that specifically guide and maintain egg orientation. These local structural modifications provide the necessary orientation control without requiring complex mechanisms throughout the entire container.
2Ease of manufacture
If eggs are marked with vegetable dyes or water-soluble ink, then the marking process is simple, but the ink leaks into the egg interior and washes off, compromising the integrity and readability of the markings
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces chemical marking methods (vegetable dyes and water-soluble inks) with laser marking technology. This substitution eliminates the problems of ink leakage and washing off, as laser markings are permanently etched onto the eggshell surface without introducing chemicals that could contaminate the egg interior.
3Reliability
If retailers are prohibited from repacking eggs, then food safety is improved by preventing contamination, but tremendous waste occurs when even a single egg in a package is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The container design includes individual receptacles with orientation guidance features and protective structures that prevent egg breakage and contamination from the outset. By implementing these preventive measures during packaging, the need for repacking is eliminated, allowing retailers to safely sell eggs individually without compromising food safety or incurring waste.
Data Source
AI summary
A container for eggs which uniformly orients eggs so that a substantial amount of surface area of the egg is uniformly presented for marking and viewing. The container has receptacles that may include one or more guidance features configured to automatically guide eggs to settle into a preferred resting orientation with the eggs uniformly centered and tilted slightly backward within their receptacles. The receptacles are designed to resist movement of the eggs from their resting orientation during marking, shipping or handling. Optionally, guidance and stabilizing features may cooperate to maintain eggs in a desired resting orientation.