Package Opening Closure Structure for Easier Membrane Molding
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing opening devices for packages filled with pourable products, particularly food items, face challenges in facilitating the molding process and require improvements to enhance their integration with multilayer packaging materials.
Innovation Solution
An opening device comprising a polymer material coupled to the package about a designated pour opening, with a closing element that can be controlled to seal and open, and a mold designed to facilitate the molding process by ensuring the separation membrane adheres correctly to the closing element during manufacturing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the opening device is molded onto the packaging blank, then the package can be sealed and functional, but the molding process becomes complex and difficult to control
Solution Approach 1:
The opening device is divided into a first portion (molded onto the packaging blank) and a second portion (attached subsequently). This segmentation allows the molding process to focus only on the first portion, simplifying the molding operation while maintaining the complete sealing function when both portions are assembled.
Solution Approach 2:
The first portion of the opening device is pre-formed by molding onto the packaging blank before the final assembly. This preliminary action prepares the package for subsequent attachment of the second portion, enabling a simpler two-stage manufacturing process rather than attempting to mold the entire device in one complex operation.
2Reliability
If the separation membrane adheres to the opening device, then the package structure is compromised, but if it does not adhere, then the oxygen barrier function is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The separation membrane is selectively removed from the area where it would contact the opening device, while being retained in the pour opening region. This extraction prevents structural compromise from adhesion while preserving the oxygen barrier function in the critical pour opening area.
Solution Approach 2:
The separation membrane is designed to have different properties in different locations: it is removed from the opening device contact area to prevent adhesion issues, while it is maintained in the pour opening area to provide oxygen barrier protection. This local differentiation resolves the contradiction between structural stability and barrier function.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution allows for a straightforward and cost-effective integration of the opening device onto the package, ensuring proper adhesion and rupture of the separation membrane, thereby simplifying the molding process and enhancing the functionality of the package.
Implementation Method 1
an opening device (3), in particular formed from a polymer material, coupled to main body (2) about the designated pour opening
Data Source
AI summary
There is described an opening device for a package having a designated pour opening and being filled with a pourable product. The opening device comprises a contact portion and a closing element detachably and/or rupturably attached to the contact portion and configured to close the designated pour opening. The closing element comprises a central main wall and a plurality of leg elements connected to and extending from the central main wall. The central main wall comprises a plurality of radially extending ridge elements, each one being interposed between one respective leg element and a center of the central main wall and a plurality of grooves, each one extending between one respective pair of leg elements.