Paper-Based Wrapper with Metallized Coating for Hermetic Sealing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional packaging for delivery systems, such as cigarettes, often rely on non-recyclable materials and lack effective sealing mechanisms, leading to issues with freshness and tamper evidence.
Innovation Solution
A package design featuring a wrapper made from a high percentage of paper-based material with a metallized or plastic coating, incorporating a resealable label and inner frame for efficient sealing and tamper evidence, while minimizing plastic use and ensuring hermetic sealing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a plastic overwrap is used to seal the package, then freshness is maintained through hermetic sealing, but recyclability is compromised and environmental sustainability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the material parameter of the wrapper from conventional plastic to paper-based material with barrier coatings. The paper wrapper is treated with metallised or plastic coatings that provide hermetic sealing properties, thus maintaining freshness while improving recyclability and environmental sustainability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs composite material structure consisting of paper-based material combined with barrier coatings (metallised or plastic). This composite approach provides both the recyclability and environmental benefits of paper while incorporating the hermetic sealing properties of plastic coatings, resolving the contradiction between freshness maintenance and environmental sustainability.
2Ease of manufacture
If conventional sealing mechanisms are used, then ease of manufacture is improved, but tamper evidence and consumer safety deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent incorporates a tamper-evident seal as a preliminary feature during the manufacturing process. The seal is pre-applied to the paper wrapper in a controlled manufacturing environment, ensuring proper placement and integrity before the product reaches the consumer. This preliminary action maintains ease of manufacture while providing reliable tamper evidence.
Solution Approach 2:
The tamper-evident seal utilizes color changes or visual indicators that are visible to consumers. When the seal is intact, it displays one appearance, but when tampered with or broken, the color or visual property changes, providing clear tamper evidence. This approach maintains simple manufacturing processes while enhancing consumer safety through visible security indicators.
3Reliability
If metallised or plastic coated paper is used for the wrapper, then barrier properties and freshness maintenance are improved, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent modifies the parameters of conventional paper by applying barrier coatings (metallised or plastic) to enhance its protective properties. These coatings provide the necessary barrier against moisture and air while maintaining the fundamental paper structure, thus improving barrier properties without substantially increasing manufacturing complexity.
4Ease of operation
If a resealable label is implemented, then consumer convenience and ease of operation are improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the sealing function from the main wrapper structure and concentrates it in a separate resealable label component. This label can be applied to and removed from the wrapper, providing resealability without requiring the entire package structure to be complex. The label acts as a separate, removable sealing element that simplifies the overall device complexity while maintaining ease of operation.
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 maintains freshness by reducing water vapor and air permeability, is recyclable, and provides a tamper-evident mechanism without the need for a plastic overwrap, enhancing consumer safety and environmental sustainability.
Implementation Method 1
the wrapper is configured to reduce water vapour and air permeability
Implementation Method 2
the barrier coating may be a metallised layer
Data Source
AI summary
A package for a delivery system includes a container having a wrapper configured to surround at least one delivery system, and a resealable label. The wrapper is sealed by the closure of its openings and an outer surface of the wrapper forms an outer surface of the package. The package includes an inner frame located inside the container. The wrapper includes a first layer having a paper based material, and an extraction region in the wrapper. The label is configured to cover the extraction region and includes a peripheral portion that extends beyond the extraction region such that the extraction region of the wrapper is sealed. The label is peelable away from the wrapper in use to open the extraction region to provide access to the inside of the wrapper.