Packaging Seal Design for Contamination Prevention
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional packaging designs for heat-treated products face issues with seal degradation and contamination, as the seal can protrude and come into contact with the contents, leading to organoleptic changes and migration of seal components into food products.
Innovation Solution
The packaging design features a seal that extends around the container wall, positioned away from the edge, with a crown and groove system to maintain seal integrity and prevent contact with the contents, using an O-ring seal and conical guidance for lid alignment, and notches for easy opening.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the seal is compressed between the container edge and lid to ensure hermetic closure, then sealing reliability is improved, but the seal deforms and forms projecting beads that promote degradation
Solution Approach 1:
The seal system is segmented into multiple functional zones: a first portion in contact with the lid, a second portion extending toward the container, and a third portion in contact with the container. This segmentation allows each portion to perform its specific function while distributing stress and preventing localized deformation that would cause bead formation.
Solution Approach 2:
Different portions of the seal are designed with different properties: the first and third portions are made harder to resist compression and maintain contact pressure, while the intermediate portion is softer to accommodate deformation without forming external beads. This local quality differentiation resolves the contradiction between sealing reliability and seal integrity.
2Ease of operation
If the seal extends outward with a tab for user gripping, then ease of opening is improved, but the projecting tab promotes degradation of the seal
Solution Approach 1:
The opening function is extracted from the seal itself and transferred to a separate user interface element (flange with gripping features) that does not compromise seal integrity. The seal maintains its protected configuration while the flange provides the necessary user interaction points for easy opening.
Solution Approach 2:
The flange acts as an intermediary element between the user and the seal. It provides gripping surfaces and lever arms for easy opening while keeping the seal protected within the container-lid junction, preventing direct exposure and degradation of the seal material.
3Reliability
If the seal is positioned to ensure hermetic closure, then sealing effectiveness is improved, but the seal can contact container contents leading to contamination
Solution Approach 1:
The seal is positioned in a different spatial dimension relative to the container contents. By configuring the seal to contact the container at a location away from the internal cavity (on the external surface or at the rim), the seal maintains hermetic closure functionality while being separated from the product space, eliminating contamination risk.
Solution Approach 2:
The container wall structure acts as an intermediary that separates the seal from the product. The seal contacts the external surface or rim of the container rather than the internal cavity, using the container structure itself as a barrier that maintains hermetic closure while preventing direct seal-product contact.
Data Source
Figure 1~3
Figure 4
AI summary
The package has a container (100) with an opening (105) and a wall (101) defining an inner cavity (102) to receive a product. A rim (108) extends around the wall, and a cover (200) closes the opening. A liner (300) arranged between the container and cover to form a sealed closure is separated from the cavity by a conical portion (111) of the container/cover when the container is closed by the cover. The container has a notch extending in a direction transversal to the liner when the container is closed, where the notch allows the insertion of a tool between the liner and the container/cover.