Fluid Container With Folded Internal Liner For Flat Storage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current containers for carbonated beverages, such as beer, face challenges including high costs, complex logistics, and negative ecological footprints due to material and structural issues, particularly in terms of maintenance, handling, and recyclability, which affect brewers' margins and environmental impact.
Innovation Solution
A container design featuring multiple levels, including a storage level for the liquid and a pressurization level for gas, with an envelope that maintains both levels in a maximum volume, allowing for flat storage and easy assembly, using foldable pockets to optimize space and reduce material usage, and incorporating a detachable envelope for reuse.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If reusable metal kegs are used, then pressure integrity and product quality are maintained, but cost and weight increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The container is divided into two functional parts: a lightweight disposable inner pouch containing the beverage, and a reusable outer cage structure that provides mechanical strength and pressure resistance. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently - the pouch for low weight and the cage for structural integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
The disposable inner pouch is nested within the reusable outer cage structure. The pouch fits inside the cage, combining the advantages of both components - the lightweight, food-contact-safe pouch material and the durable, pressurizable cage structure.
2Reliability
If reusable metal kegs are used, then pressure integrity is maintained, but manufacturing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The container system is segmented into a simple, inexpensive pouch and a durable cage. The pouch can be manufactured using standard flexible packaging processes, while the cage can be produced from recycled materials, reducing overall manufacturing costs compared to traditional metal kegs.
Solution Approach 2:
The inner pouch is designed as a disposable component that can be produced at low cost, replacing expensive reusable metal kegs for single-use applications while maintaining pressure integrity through the outer cage structure.
3Stress or pressure
If traditional rigid containers are used, then pressure resistance is ensured, but storage efficiency and transport cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The inner pouch is a flexible, dynamic structure that can be collapsed as beverage is dispensed, maximizing space utilization during storage and transport. The outer cage provides the necessary rigid structure for pressure resistance while allowing the inner pouch to adapt its volume.
Solution Approach 2:
The inner pouch uses flexible film materials that can be collapsed and compressed, allowing the container to occupy minimal space when empty or partially used, while the outer cage maintains structural integrity for pressure resistance.
4Ease of operation
If complex connection heads are integrated into kegs, then dispensing functionality is achieved, but device complexity and handling difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The complex connection head and dispensing mechanism are extracted from the container itself and integrated into the external dispenser unit. The container simply provides the beverage reservoir, while the dispenser handles all complex functions including pressure regulation, flow control, and connection management.
Solution Approach 2:
The dispenser acts as an intermediary device between the container and the user/environment, performing all complex functions of pressure management and fluid control, thereby simplifying the container design to its essential function of holding and delivering beverage.
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
This design reduces brewers' investment, minimizes logistical costs and ecological impact, allows for efficient distribution, and simplifies handling and recycling, while maintaining product quality and pressure integrity.
Implementation Method 1
Carbonated beverages, such as beer, are products manufactured in factories (or breweries in the case of beer), then packaged in containers, such as kegs. They are then distributed to bars or to individuals through networks adapted to each market. In the case of beer, for example, it contains dissolved carbon dioxide in equilibrium with pressurized gaseous carbon dioxide. This pressure balance is necessary to preserve the beer's organoleptic properties.
Data Source
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AI summary
Fluid container comprising: a first storage level (100) configured to store the fluid, a second pressurization level (101) configured to receive a gas so as to keep the first level under pressure, in which the first and second levels can be stored flat when empty of fluid and gas, the container further comprising, an envelope (102) configured to maintain said first and second levels in a maximum volume, said envelope being configured to be stored flat at least one of said first and second levels comprises a pocket (100, 101), said pocket being folded over itself (2501) in a meridian plane (2301) connecting two edge folds (2201, 2202) of said envelope when it is in a flat configuration.