Self-Erecting Box Dividers for Bottle Packaging
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current packaging boxes for bottles lying on their sides do not automatically arrange internal dividers during assembly, requiring manual intervention and complicating the preparation process, especially when trying to prevent bottle collisions and optimize packing efficiency.
Innovation Solution
A box design featuring self-forming internal dividers from the bottom, which automatically create lower separation elements during assembly, allowing for the immediate insertion of bottles without additional steps, using a corrugated cardboard structure with specific flap configurations that lift and position dividers vertically.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If manual insertion of internal dividers is used, then manufacturing cost is reduced, but assembly complexity and labor time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The internal dividers are designed to automatically erect and position themselves during the box assembly process. The dividers utilize the box's structural elements (flaps and walls) as guides and supports, eliminating the need for manual insertion while maintaining simple manufacturing processes.
Solution Approach 2:
The dividers are pre-configured with folding structures and attachment mechanisms that enable them to automatically assume their final vertical position during box assembly. This preliminary design allows the dividers to self-erect without requiring separate manual positioning steps.
2Reliability
If internal dividers are added to prevent bottle collisions, then bottle protection is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The internal dividers are integrated with the box structure itself, using the same corrugated cardboard material and folding mechanisms. The dividers are not separate components but rather extensions of the box's own structural elements, reducing overall device complexity while providing effective bottle separation and protection.
Solution Approach 2:
The internal dividers are made from the same corrugated cardboard material as the box, creating a homogeneous structure. This eliminates the need for different materials or complex assembly procedures for attaching diverse components, simplifying the overall device while maintaining protective functionality.
3Productivity
If self-erecting dividers are implemented, then assembly time is reduced, but manufacturing precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The box assembly process is designed so that the natural folding and erecting of the box walls and flaps creates equal mechanical conditions for the divider structures. As the box takes shape, all divider components experience similar forces and guidance, allowing them to automatically position themselves accurately without requiring high-precision pre-manufacturing of individual divider parts.
Solution Approach 2:
The box's structural elements (flaps, walls, and folding joints) serve as intermediary guides that mediate the positioning of the internal dividers during assembly. These intermediaries provide physical guidance and constraints that ensure the dividers reach their correct positions automatically, reducing the need for high manufacturing precision in the dividers themselves.
Data Source
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AI summary
A self-erecting box (20) for containing three bottles or the like or a multiple of three bottles or the like in overlapping rows and in a lying down position, comprises four side faces (21, 22, 23 and 24), four lower flaps (26, 27, 28 and 29) which during the assembly of the box come into contact with each other for constituting the bottom of the box (20) itself, the side faces (26-29) being joined to the corresponding lower flaps through a first fold line (38). A first flap (26) and a second flap (28) of said four lower flaps (26-29) each have a respective pair of protruding elements (34, 35; 36, 37) respectively separated by a groove (41), and that are joined to the respective first (26) and second (28) flap through a respective second (39) and third (40) fold line, parallel to each other, wherein a protruding element of each pair (34, 35) comes into contact with a protruding element of the other pair (36, 37) during the assembly of the box (20) determining the formation, inside the box itself, of a pair of separation elements for the insertion of three bottles lying on their side.