Foldable Packing Box with Snap-Fit Cover Bodies
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional packing boxes are bulky, complex to produce, and inconvenient for disassembly and reuse due to adhesive fixation, leading to inefficient use of space and increased storage and transportation costs.
Innovation Solution
A packing box design featuring two cover bodies that snap together, formed by folding a plate member with internal and external flexible layers and a paperboard layer, allowing for assembly without adhesives and easy disassembly, with a locating structure and pull tabs for efficient folding and unfolding.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If a folding packing box is designed with additional internal layers for folding, then the packing box can be collapsed to save space, but the structure becomes complicated and production efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The packing box is divided into multiple functional layers including a base layer, a folding layer with fold lines, and a cover layer. Each layer performs a specific function: the base layer provides structural support, the folding layer enables collapse through pre-scored fold lines, and the cover layer protects contents. This segmentation allows the box to collapse flat for storage while maintaining structural integrity during use, resolving the contradiction between space-saving and structural complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
Fold lines are pre-scored and creases are pre-formed in the packaging material during manufacturing. Adhesive elements are pre-positioned at specific locations. These preliminary actions enable the box to be easily assembled and collapsed without requiring complex mechanisms or additional internal layers, reducing structural complexity while achieving space-saving collapse capability.
2Reliability
If adhesive fixation is used to assemble the packing box, then structural reliability is improved, but the box cannot be disassembled and reused
Solution Approach 1:
A removable adhesive layer or adhesive tab system is used as an intermediary between the box components. This adhesive mechanism provides strong bonding during normal use to ensure structural reliability, but can be easily peeled or detached when disassembly is needed. The adhesive acts as a reversible connector that maintains strength during operation but allows for clean separation for reuse, resolving the contradiction between reliability and disassembly convenience.
3Reliability
If thick material is used to adhere and form the packing box, then structural reliability and aesthetic property are improved, but the box occupies large space in transporting and storage
Solution Approach 1:
The packing box utilizes thin flexible packaging materials with pre-formed fold lines and creases that provide structural rigidity when assembled but allow the box to collapse to a thin profile for storage. The flexible material can be folded along predetermined lines to create a rigid three-dimensional structure during use, then collapse flat for transportation and storage, resolving the contradiction between structural reliability and space occupation.
Solution Approach 2:
The packing box transitions between two dynamic states: an expanded rigid state for protecting contents during use, and a collapsed flat state for storage and transportation. Fold lines and hinge mechanisms enable this dynamic transformation, allowing the box to maintain structural integrity when needed while minimizing space occupation during storage, resolving the contradiction between reliability and volume.
Data Source
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AI summary
The present disclosure discloses a packing box in the field of outer packing technique in view of problems that the existing thick packing box occupies large space in transporting and storage and cannot be reused after disassembled due to adhering connections. The packing box includes two cover bodies configured to snap one another, each of the cover bodies is formed by a folded plate member, and the plate member includes an internal flexible layer, an external flexible layer and a paperboard layer therebetween, where the cover body includes a bottom plate, and a side plate and a flipping plate both arranged on each of opposite sides of the bottom plate, one side of the side plate is connected to the bottom plate, and the other side of the side plate is connected to the flipping plate, so that the side plate is foldable with respect to a side edge of the bottom plate that is connected with the side plate, and the flipping plate is foldable with respect to a side edge of the side plate that is connected with the flipping plate. A locating structure is arranged between the bottom plate and the side plate, and a free end of the flipping plate is configured to be inserted and fixed to the locating structure. Since adhering connections are avoided in the assembling of the packing box, the production efficiency is increased, and the packing box is easy to disassemble and assemble and may be reused, so that the cover body can be disassembled to save space for transporting and storage.