Flexible Pouch Surface Coating for Food Flow
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Solution Overview
Problem
Flexible packaging pouches for cooked and ready meals often experience contamination and incomplete sealing due to ingredients not flowing quickly down the inner walls during filling, leading to food safety risks and consumer inconvenience, especially in pet food packaging.
Innovation Solution
A flexible packaging pouch with a surface tension of 21 mN/m or less, coated with 0.5 to 3 wt.% dialkyl amide perfluoropolyether, which provides easy flow properties and can withstand thermal processes, ensuring food flows smoothly during filling and emptying, and is suitable for various shapes and designs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional packaging materials are used, then sealing and structural integrity are maintained, but food flow properties are poor causing contamination and incomplete sealing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies a surface coating layer with specific properties (low surface tension, high food flow characteristics) only to the inner wall surface of the pouch that contacts food, while maintaining the bulk material's structural integrity and sealing properties. This localized modification resolves the contradiction by improving food flow without compromising sealing.
Solution Approach 2:
The pouch uses a composite structure combining a base packaging material with a functional surface coating layer. The coating layer contains specific additives (fluorinated compounds, silicon oxides, or dialkyl amide perfluoropolyether) that provide enhanced food flow properties, while the base material maintains structural integrity and sealing capability.
2Reliability
If ultrasonic sealing tools are used to improve sealing, then sealing quality improves, but equipment cost and complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The pouch material itself provides the sealing functionality through its inherent properties and simple heat-sealing mechanism, without requiring complex ultrasonic sealing equipment. The surface coating layer also contributes to food flow properties, making the system self-sufficient and eliminating the need for expensive specialized equipment.
3Ease of operation
If food is not fast flowing out of the pouch, then consumer convenience is improved, but food safety risks increase due to contamination during filling
Solution Approach 1:
The surface coating layer is applied to the pouch inner wall before filling to establish optimal food flow properties in advance. This preliminary preparation ensures that food flows quickly and smoothly during filling, preventing contamination at the sealing area, and also facilitates easy emptying by the consumer.
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 pouch exhibits improved food flow properties during filling and consumption, reducing contamination risks and enhancing consumer convenience, while maintaining integrity under retort, pasteurization, and aseptic conditions.
Implementation Method 1
the surface tension of the layer or the surface coating is 21 mN/m or less
Implementation Method 2
The pouch can withstand thermo cycles up to 135°C for 90 min
Data Source
Figure 1~3
AI summary
In a packaging pouch made of a flexible mono or multilayer film for packaging viscous jelly and/or gravy matrix food, in which a thermo cycle such as retort, pasteurisation, hot filling or aseptic conditions are applicable, a layer of the film forming the pouch inner walls or a surface coating on the film comprises a substance based on a molecule and or molecules system functionalised by siloxane and/or fluorinated groups so that the surface tension of the layer or the surface coating on the layer is 24 mN/m or less and the pouch inner walls being in contact with food exhibit easy flow properties.