Sauce Tray Lid Layout for Organized Dipping Sauce Storage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current packaging solutions for condiments and dipping sauces in the quick service restaurant industry are inefficient as they are often thrown into bags with primary food products, lacking a dedicated and organized space within food containers.
Innovation Solution
A sauce tray and lid system that includes an insert tray, a paperboard insert, and a sauce tray, allowing for multiple orientations to create separate cavities within a food container for storing dipping sauces and additional food products, with the sauce tray featuring openings to retain sauce containers and a locking mechanism for secure placement.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If condiments and dipping sauces are stored in separate flexible packets or small plastic containers, then they can be easily packaged and distributed, but they lack a dedicated and organized space within food containers and are simply thrown into bags with primary food products
Solution Approach 1:
The sauce tray is designed to be nested within the food container, with the tray fitting into the container's interior space. The container acts as the outer structure, and the sauce tray as the inner component, creating an organized storage solution without requiring separate packaging materials.
Solution Approach 2:
The sauce tray utilizes the vertical dimension within the food container by featuring a domed configuration that rises from the container floor. This three-dimensional approach maximizes the use of available space while providing dedicated compartments for sauce containers.
2Ease of operation
If a dedicated sauce tray is introduced to organize dipping sauces within food containers, then organization and convenience are enhanced, but the packaging structure becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The sauce tray serves multiple functions: it organizes dipping sauces, provides structural support within the container, and can accommodate various sizes and numbers of sauce containers. The domed design also creates natural compartments for different sauce types.
Solution Approach 2:
The sauce tray is designed with adjustable parameters including the number, size, and shape of openings to accommodate different sauce container configurations. The domed height and base diameter can be varied to fit different container sizes.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the sauce tray is designed with multiple openings to receive sauce containers, then it can accommodate various sauce sizes and types, but the structural stability may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The sauce tray features localized reinforcement around each opening and at the base structure. The material thickness and density are increased in these critical areas to maintain structural integrity while allowing openings of various sizes and shapes for different sauce containers.
Data Source
AI summary
A sauce tray defines one or more openings through a base surface to receive and retain one or more containers of dipping sauce, and the sauce tray is further configured to be positioned in either a first orientation or second orientation on top of a food container. In some embodiments, the sauce tray is part of a lid system that also creates a separate cavity within the interior volume of the food container to store another food product.