Resealable Food Packaging With Supporting Insert
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing packaging for food products with resealable openings, such as crackers and biscuits, face challenges in maintaining accessibility and tightness of the reclosed package, especially when a substantial portion of the product is withdrawn, leading to deformation and difficulty in resealing.
Innovation Solution
A resealable package design featuring a flexible container with a supporting insert that includes a frame extending along the side faces, providing support for the closure flap during resealing, made from double-face corrugated cardboard, which prevents the container from collapsing and allows for easy reinsertion of products.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If a corrugated card wrapper is used tightly around a stack of biscuits, then the package can be compact and cost-effective, but the package deforms when biscuits are withdrawn and cannot be reclosed tightly
Solution Approach 1:
The packaging system is divided into distinct functional components: a flexible outer wrapper and a rigid supporting insert. This segmentation allows each component to perform its specific function - the wrapper provides flexibility and sealing while the insert provides structural support during resealing operations.
Solution Approach 2:
A supporting insert acts as an intermediary element between the flexible wrapper and the food products. This insert provides the necessary rigidity to maintain package shape during withdrawal and resealing, while allowing the wrapper itself to remain flexible and cost-effective.
2Ease of operation
If the closure flap is pulled down to reseal the package, then the opening can be closed, but the flexible container collapses making high-quality resealing difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The supporting insert is placed inside the flexible container beforehand to prevent collapse during the resealing operation. This preemptive structural support ensures the container maintains its shape when the closure flap is pulled down and pressed against the adhesive.
3Ease of operation
If biscuits remaining at the package ends are displaced up toward the opening for accessibility, then products can be accessed, but the package deforms and cannot be reclosed tightly
Solution Approach 1:
The supporting insert serves as a mediator that allows product accessibility while preventing package deformation. It provides a rigid framework that accommodates product removal and displacement without causing the flexible wrapper to lose its shape or sealing capability.
Data Source
AI summary
Resealable packaging for food products is provided with a flexible container having a top, bottom and side faces, a container aperture having lateral edges extending within the top face, and a flexible closure flap covered of repositionable adhesive on the lateral margins, which are peelable from a closed position in which they adhere around the aperture. The container having a supporting insert including a frame extending along the side faces and having a lower peripheral edge laying against the bottom face of the container. The frame may include foot portions and may have a top peripheral edge situated adjacent the top face and may have head portions between which two top panels extend. The insert covers the inner face of the container in the area on which the lateral margins adhere, to support it during the resealing. A method of manufacturing is also disclosed.