Frangible Top Panel for Shipping Container
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional shipping and display containers with removable top portions are difficult to manufacture and restrict access to products, as they require tear tapes or complex folding and gluing processes, limiting the type of products that can be placed inside and making it hard to apply graphics due to interrupted surfaces.
Innovation Solution
A corrugated shipping and display container design featuring frangible means that allow the top portion to be completely separated from the bottom portion by grasping and lifting a tear-out panel, with uninterrupted flat surfaces for graphics, using a blank made of scored paperboard material with specific fold lines and perforations for easy assembly and access.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If tear tapes or complex folding and gluing processes are used to secure the top portion, then the container structure is strengthened, but the manufacturing complexity increases and the container becomes difficult to open
Solution Approach 1:
The container is divided into distinct components: a bottom portion and a top portion that can be completely separated. The top portion is secured only by frangible means (perforations and adhesive strips) that allow easy separation, creating clear segmentation between structural elements while maintaining ease of opening.
Solution Approach 2:
The frangible means (perforations and adhesive strips) are extracted as the sole securing mechanism, removing complex folding and multiple gluing processes. This extraction simplifies manufacturing while maintaining sufficient structural strength during shipping, and enables easy opening by simply lifting the top portion.
2Ease of operation
If the top portion is partially or wholly removed to display products, then product accessibility is improved, but the container structure becomes more complex and manufacturing becomes burdensome
Solution Approach 1:
The container is segmented into a bottom portion and a completely separable top portion. This segmentation allows the top portion to be fully removed for complete product accessibility, while the bottom portion remains as a simple, structurally sound container, avoiding the need for complex partial-removal mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The top portion is extracted as a completely removable component secured only by frangible means. This extraction eliminates complex hinges, partial-tear mechanisms, or multi-step opening processes, allowing the top portion to be completely removed for full product access while keeping the remaining container structure simple.
3Stability of the object's composition
If side flaps are folded inwardly and glued to form side walls, then the container structure is stabilized, but triple thickness of flaps creates interrupted surfaces that make graphic application difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The side wall construction is segmented into flaps that are folded inwardly and secured with adhesive. This segmentation allows the flaps to create a stable box structure while the adhesive application method ensures flat, uninterrupted outer surfaces suitable for graphics, avoiding triple-layer overlaps on visible surfaces.
Solution Approach 2:
The triple-thickness flap structure is extracted from the outer surface design. By carefully planning which flaps are folded inward and how adhesive is applied, the solution removes the problematic triple-layer effect from visible surfaces, maintaining structural stability through internal flap configuration while preserving smooth external surfaces for graphics.
Data Source
AI summary
A container and a blank for making it. The container is constructed from a single sheet of foldable material and has a bottom wall, a top wall, first and second front wall panels, a back wall, and side flaps extending from opposite ends of the bottom, top, and back walls, and from the first and second front wall panels. The top wall is secured to the container by a tear-out panel extending from the top wall into the back wall and by frangible side flap portions in the side walls, whereby the tear-out panel may be grasped and lifted to lift the top wall and break the frangible side flap portions, completely freeing the top wall from the container by the single step of grasping and tearing out and lifting the tear-out panel to pivot the top upwardly. A blank and method of assembling and erecting the blank to form the container also are disclosed.