Flattenable Container With Segmented Sidewalls
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing foldable containers, such as those made of corrugated cardboard, face challenges in maximizing volume while minimizing size for transportation and ensuring easy, assembly-aid-free unfolding at the point of use, particularly when transporting both heavy and lighter goods cost-effectively.
Innovation Solution
A flattenable container with a prism-shaped layout composed of at least eight interconnected sidewall parts, where four are longer than the others, and featuring strategically placed folding lines allows for increased volume utilization and easy folding/unfolding, with additional bottom parts enhancing stability and facilitating the unfolding process without assembly aids.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If the container is designed with longer sidewall parts to increase volume, then the volume is improved, but the container becomes harder to flatten and unfold
Solution Approach 1:
The container's sidewalls are divided into multiple separate parts (first, second, third, and fourth sidewall parts) that can be independently folded and positioned. This segmentation allows the container to achieve greater volume through extended sidewalls while maintaining ease of folding, as each segment can be collapsed independently during the flattening process.
2Stability of the object's composition
If the container is made with more material to increase stability, then the stability is improved, but the manufacturing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The container employs dynamic elements including movable bottom parts that can shift position, flexible sidewall sections that can bend and fold, and interlocking mechanisms that allow components to move relative to each other. These dynamic features provide stability during use while using minimal material, as the stability is achieved through mechanical arrangement rather than material quantity.
Solution Approach 2:
The container utilizes thin-walled corrugated cardboard construction with strategic folding lines and hinge points that allow thin material to achieve high stability through geometric arrangement. The flexible nature of the thin walls enables them to bear loads effectively while minimizing material usage and manufacturing cost.
3Productivity
If the container is designed to be fully flattenable for compact transport, then the transport efficiency is improved, but the volume utilization at the destination is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The container is divided into multiple separable sidewall parts and bottom sections that can be completely flattened when collapsed. This segmentation enables the container to reduce to a thin flat package for efficient transport, while at the destination, the same segments can be reassembled into a large-volume structure, thus resolving the contradiction between transport compactness and volume utilization.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The container achieves a larger volume relative to the base area, is easily foldable and unfoldable, and is produced at reasonable costs with enhanced stability, optimizing space usage on pallets and ensuring reliable transportation and deployment.
Implementation Method 1
two sidewall parts situated mutually opposite with respect to the center point each have a folding line on their side median, by which folding line the ring can be flattened
Implementation Method 2
a first bottom part, which is hinged to a first long sidewall part and to a first medium sidewall part
Data Source
AI summary
A flattenable volume-optimized container, having a prism-shaped layout, formed of at least eight mutually connected sidewall parts, of which sidewall parts, two respectively are essentially parallel to one another and have the same sidewall length, wherein, with respect to the center point of the layout, the sidewall parts are arranged at least essentially point-symmetrically, and at least one bottom part essentially perpendicularly alignable with respect to the sidewall parts and foldable between the sidewall parts, and hinged to at least two sidewall parts. The invention includes four of the sidewall parts having a length which is greater than the length of four other sidewall parts, and two sidewall parts mutually opposite with respect to the center point each have a folding line on their side median, by which the ring can be flattened and which are situated on the outer boundary of the flattened container.