Offset Step Side Seam for Liquid-Tight Paper Container Sealing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional paper or paper-like containers with overlapping side seams face challenges in achieving liquid-tight sealing, particularly when filled with hot beverages, due to the exposure of the inner side edge to liquids, which can compromise the sealing action and lead to ingress of liquids through the face side of the side edge.
Innovation Solution
The solution involves creating an offset step in the region adjoining the first side edge and folding the second side edge over to lie on the step surface, allowing for a reduced or eliminated offset in the overlapping side seam, and applying a sealing strip to ensure a liquid-tight connection between the sleeve and the bottom or cover, while also protecting the coated surface from liquid ingress.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If an overlapping side seam is formed by laying regions adjoining side edges one on top of the other, then the sleeve can be constructed from a sheetlike blank, but an offset of significant height is formed which compromises liquid-tight sealing
Solution Approach 1:
The invention introduces a step structure that creates a height difference (offset) in the vertical dimension. By forming a step with a first surface and second surface at different heights, the overlapping side seam regions are positioned at different vertical levels, allowing the seam to be liquid-tight while maintaining the construction from a sheetlike blank.
Solution Approach 2:
The step structure is formed in advance during the manufacturing process, before the overlapping side seam is created. The regions adjoining the side edges are prepared with the step structure already in place, so that when they are overlaid and bonded, the liquid-tight sealing is achieved without requiring additional corrective measures.
2Reliability
If the offset height in the overlapping side seam is reduced to improve sealing, then liquid-tight connection is achieved, but the face side of the inner side edge becomes exposed to liquid ingress
Solution Approach 1:
The step structure creates different local conditions within the same component. The first surface of the step is positioned to prevent liquid ingress on the inner side, while the second surface provides the reduced offset height for liquid-tight sealing. This local differentiation of heights and functions resolves the contradiction between sealing and protecting the face side.
3Reliability
If a step structure with offset is formed to enable liquid-tight sealing, then sealing reliability is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The step structure is formed as an integral part of the blank during the manufacturing process, before assembly. By preparing the step structure in advance on the blank itself, the complexity is built into the component design rather than requiring complex assembly operations or additional sealing devices during container formation.
Data Source
AI summary
A container of paper or paper-like material, having a sleeve and having a bottom and/or a cover, wherein the bottom and/or cover and the sleeve are connected in substantially liquid-tight fashion in the region of a bottom skirt and/or cover skirt. The sleeve is composed of a sheetlike blank, and wherein regions adjoining a first side edge and adjoining a second side edge, situated opposite the first side edge, of the blank are laid one on top of the other so as to form an overlapping side seam and connected to one another by material-bonding engagement, wherein at least the region adjoining the first side edge forms a step which is offset relative to the rest of the blank.