Reclosable Container With Extracted Lid Aperture
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Solution Overview
Problem
There is a need for a container that effectively preserves the freshness of consumer items, such as smoking articles, while being simple in structure and cost-effective in production, as existing solutions often require complex inner liners and additional frames.
Innovation Solution
A reclosable container design featuring a box with a hingedly connected lid, an inner liner with a section for access and means to open and reclose, and an inner frame attached to the box, utilizing a label with a tacky portion for easy opening and reclosing, and an inner liner made from materials with specific bending stiffness and layer configurations to ensure structural strength and cost-effective production.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a sophisticated inner liner blank and additional inner frame are used to create a reclosable aperture, then reclosability and freshness preservation are improved, but device complexity and production cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the reclosable aperture feature from the complex inner liner structure and relocates it to the lid. The lid now contains the reclosable aperture with sealing flaps, while the inner liner becomes a simpler wrapper that conforms to the consumer items without requiring sophisticated folding patterns or additional frames.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the container into distinct functional components: the lid handles reclosability with its aperture and sealing flaps, the inner liner provides simple wrapping and conformity to items, and the box provides structural support. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently, reducing overall complexity.
2Reliability
If a sophisticated inner liner blank is used to define a reclosable aperture, then reclosability is improved, but ease of manufacture deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The reclosable aperture mechanism is extracted from the inner liner blank and placed in the lid. The inner liner blank becomes a simple wrapped structure that requires no complex folding or aperture formation, making it straightforward to manufacture using conventional wrapping techniques.
Solution Approach 2:
The inner liner is designed as a simple, disposable wrapping structure that is easy to manufacture and replace. By removing the complex reclosable aperture requirements from the inner liner, it can be produced as a basic wrapped structure that conforms to items without requiring sophisticated manufacturing processes.
3Strength
If an inner frame protruding towards the opening is used, then structural support is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The lid serves multiple functions: it provides the reclosable aperture with sealing flaps for freshness preservation, and simultaneously provides structural support that replaces the need for a protruding inner frame. The box walls also provide structural support to the overall container structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The structural support function is extracted from the inner frame and distributed to the lid and box structure. The lid's rigid construction and the box's wall structure together provide the necessary structural support, eliminating the need for a complex protruding inner frame.
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 container provides reliable reclosability and improved freshness preservation without the need for additional inner frames, reducing production costs and allowing high-speed manufacturing on existing machinery, while maintaining reclosability until the last item is removed.
Implementation Method 1
The label has a tacky portion which is releasably attached to the inner liner
Data Source
AI summary
A reclosable container for consumer items includes a box, a lid hingedly connected to the box, an inner liner wrapped around the consumer items, the inner liner including a section defining an opening for allowing access to the consumer items, means to open and reclose the opening, and an inner frame attached to the box. The inner frame includes a free inner frame portion protruding from the box towards the opening in the inner liner. The free inner frame portion includes a cut out and the inner frame is attached to the inner liner proximate to the cut out.