Handled Plastic Shipping Bag With Secure Flap Closure for Food Transport

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing shipping bags, especially those with handles, face challenges in ensuring safe, reliable, and easy handling of sensitive goods like foodstuffs while maintaining freshness and preventing contamination, and often fail to meet the demands of conveyor systems.

Innovation Solution

A plastic shipping bag design with a closed bottom end and an open end, featuring multi-layered front and back walls, a closure flap that can be folded over to secure the opening, and integrated handles made of high-density polyethylene, with perforation lines for easy opening and reusability, ensuring secure closure and minimal material usage.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of operation

If shipping bags are equipped with handles for easy handling, then ease of operation is improved, but reliability deteriorates because handles create weak points that can compromise the integrity of the bag and its contents

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveease of handlingVSAvoidintegrity of bag contents
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of operationVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

A closure element is introduced as an intermediary component between the front and back walls. This closure element with its retaining loop allows the handles to be securely attached while maintaining the integrity of the bag. The closure element acts as a mediator that connects the handles to the bag structure without creating weak points that would compromise the contents.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The bag employs a composite structure with multi-layered walls (front wall, back wall, and side walls) made of different materials with complementary properties. The front and back walls are made of a material that provides strength and integrity, while the side walls provide flexibility and handling capability. This composite approach allows the bag to maintain reliability while accommodating handles for ease of operation.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #40Composite materials

2Reliability

If shipping bags have complex designs to protect fragile goods, then reliability is improved, but device complexity increases making manufacturing and handling more difficult

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveprotection of fragile goodsVSAvoidcomplexity of design
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The bag is segmented into distinct functional zones: front wall, back wall, side walls, and a closure element. Each segment has a specific function - the front and back walls provide structural integrity and protection, while the side walls facilitate handling. The closure element secures the opening. This segmentation allows complex protection functions to be achieved through simple, modular components that are easy to manufacture and handle.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The closure element serves multiple functions simultaneously: it closes the opening of the bag, provides attachment points for handles, and maintains the structural integrity of the bag. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate components, simplifying the overall design while maintaining reliable protection for fragile goods.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

3Ease of manufacture

If shipping bags use single-layer walls for simplicity, then ease of manufacture is improved, but reliability deteriorates due to insufficient protection against contamination and damage

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvesimplicity of constructionVSAvoidprotection against contamination
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of manufactureVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The bag walls are constructed as composite structures with multiple layers. The front wall and back wall each consist of an inner layer and an outer layer, with the inner layer providing protection against contamination and the outer layer providing structural strength and durability. This composite construction maintains ease of manufacture through straightforward lamination processes while significantly improving reliability and protection against contamination and damage.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #40Composite materials

Solution Approach 2:

Different regions of the bag have different wall constructions optimized for their specific functions. The front and back walls use multi-layered construction for maximum protection against contamination, while the side walls use a simpler structure for ease of handling and manufacturing. This localized differentiation allows the bag to achieve high reliability where needed without compromising ease of manufacture overall.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Data Source

PatentEP3882171B1Plastic shipping bag and use of the plastic shipping bag
Publication Date: 2026.03.18 PAPIER METTLER
  • EP3882171B1 patent drawingFigure 1~2
  • EP3882171B1 patent drawingFigure 3~4
  • EP3882171B1 patent drawingFigure 5~6

AI summary

The present invention relates to a plastic shipping bag with a closure flap projecting beyond the front wall, the outer side of the front wall being foldable and having a through-opening, particularly in the center, designed and configured for the passage of a retaining loop or handle from the front wall and/or back wall, wherein the closure flap has at least one fastening element between the opening edge of the back wall and the through-opening, designed and configured to close the opening end after the closure flap has been folded over to the outer side of the front wall. The invention further relates to the use of the plastic shipping bag for shipping foodstuffs, particularly chilled foodstuffs.