Reinforced Package With Locking Carton And Flexible Bag
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing package designs for holding prepared food items, such as sandwiches and French fries, require multiple manufacturing stages with reinforcing materials, leading to increased costs due to complex production processes.
Innovation Solution
A reinforced package design comprising a carton with a bag attached, featuring foldable panels and locking bottom flaps that form a closed bottom, allowing the package to be easily expanded and locked in an upright configuration, using materials like polyethylene or paperboard for cost-effectiveness and ease of manufacturing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If multiple stages or operations are used with reinforcing materials to create a supportive package structure, then the package strength and shape stability are improved, but the manufacturing complexity and cost increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The package is divided into two functional segments: a flexible bag for containing products and a separate carton structure for providing strength and support. This segmentation allows each component to be manufactured independently using simple processes, then combined to achieve the desired overall strength without complex multi-stage manufacturing.
Solution Approach 2:
The flexible bag and rigid carton are merged into a single integrated package structure through attachment at the open end. This combining allows the package to achieve both flexibility for product access and structural strength for support, while maintaining simple manufacturing processes for each component that can be produced separately and then assembled.
2Stability of the object's composition
If multiple stages or operations are used with reinforcing materials to create a supportive package structure, then the package shape stability is improved, but the manufacturing cost increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The package structure is segmented into a flexible bag portion and a separate carton portion, each manufactured through simple, cost-effective processes. The carton provides shape stability while the bag provides flexibility, and both can be produced using standard, low-cost manufacturing methods before being assembled together.
Solution Approach 2:
The package uses inexpensive materials for both the flexible bag and carton components. The carton can be made from economical paperboard or similar materials, and the bag from standard flexible packaging materials, allowing the overall package to achieve shape stability without requiring expensive reinforcing layers or complex manufacturing processes.
3Strength
If a rigid structure is used to support the package, then the package strength is improved, but the ease of access to contents decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The package is segmented into a rigid carton structure for strength and support, and a flexible bag portion for containing and accessing products. The flexible bag can be easily opened and accessed at its open end while the carton provides the structural strength, allowing both strength and ease of access to coexist in different parts of the integrated package.
Solution Approach 2:
The flexible bag portion acts as a thin film or shell within the rigid carton structure. This flexible component allows easy access to contents by simply opening the bag at its open end, while the surrounding rigid carton maintains the overall package strength and shape stability.
Data Source
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AI summary
A reinforced package comprising a carton and a bag attached to the carton. The bag has an open top and a sealed bottom portion, and the carton comprises features to reinforce the shape of the formed package and allow access to the contents of the package.