Hinged Container Packaging With Two-Point Locking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional packaging for containers, such as bottles, often fails to maintain the container's distinctiveness in the retail environment while minimizing material usage and accommodating manufacturing tolerances, leading to potential accidental disengagement and loss of security.
Innovation Solution
A packaging system comprising shell pieces hinged together with a two-point locking feature, including a clasp and catch for secure fitting and a resilient portion to prevent accidental release, ensuring snug fit and retention around containers with varying sizes due to manufacturing tolerances.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of substance
If conventional packaging is used to minimize material usage, then material consumption is reduced, but the container's distinctiveness is lost and security is compromised due to manufacturing tolerances
Solution Approach 1:
The packaging shell is designed with variable wall thickness rather than uniform thickness. The shell includes thicker reinforcement portions at critical locations (corners, edges, and sealing areas) to compensate for manufacturing tolerances and provide reliable locking, while maintaining thinner walls in non-critical areas to minimize overall material usage. This parameter variation allows the packaging to maintain both material efficiency and structural reliability.
2Loss of substance
If packaging is designed to fit snugly around containers, then material usage is reduced, but manufacturing tolerances cause accidental disengagement
Solution Approach 1:
The packaging incorporates a resilient portion that can elastically deform to accommodate variations in container dimensions caused by manufacturing tolerances. This resilient section allows the packaging to dynamically adapt to different container sizes within the tolerance range, maintaining secure engagement without requiring excessive material or complex adjustment mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The shell wall thickness is varied to create resilient portions with specific elastic properties. These portions have reduced wall thickness and increased flexibility compared to reinforcement portions, allowing them to deform elastically under load variations caused by manufacturing tolerances while maintaining overall structural integrity and secure retention.
3Reliability
If packaging uses reinforcement portions to accommodate tolerances, then reliability is improved, but material usage increases
Solution Approach 1:
The packaging shell features localized reinforcement portions with increased wall thickness only at critical areas where structural strength and locking reliability are needed (such as corners, edges, and sealing surfaces). The remaining portions of the shell maintain thinner wall thickness to minimize material consumption. This local differentiation of quality allows the packaging to achieve high reliability at critical points without proportionally increasing overall material usage.
Data Source
AI summary
There is provided a packaging for a container wherein the packaging is formed from a plurality of shell pieces that are hinged together to wrap around the container. When wrapped around the container, a first shell piece is secured to a second shell piece using a two-point locking feature. The shell pieces are formed with a substantially constant wall thickness such that the packaging substantially conforms to the shape of the container. Thus, advantageously, any distinctiveness in the shape of the container is not lost when wrapped by the packaging.