Tapered Sealed Pourable-Food Packages for Efficient Pallet Filling
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Solution Overview
Problem
There is a need to optimize the filling of transport pallets with sealed packages of pourable food products while maintaining a pleasing appearance, as existing packages often have uniform dimensions that do not efficiently utilize space.
Innovation Solution
A sealed package design with a bottom portion and a top portion of differing dimensions, featuring a slanted top panel and specific crease patterns in the packaging material to allow for flexible packaging configurations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If packages have uniform dimensions, then manufacturing is simplified, but space utilization on transport pallets is inefficient
Solution Approach 1:
The package is divided into two distinct portions: a first portion (bottom) and a second portion (top), where the second portion has a smaller volume than the first portion. This segmentation allows the package to accommodate product bulging while maintaining efficient pallet space utilization, as the varying dimensions enable better stacking and arrangement on transport pallets compared to uniform packages.
Solution Approach 2:
The package employs asymmetric design by creating a volume reduction from the bottom portion to the top portion. This asymmetry is achieved through the volume reduction feature that tapers the package upward, allowing optimized space utilization on pallets while maintaining manufacturing simplicity through a single-blank forming process.
2Reliability
If packages accommodate product bulging, then product containment is improved, but appearance may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The volume reduction feature is pre-formed in the packaging blank before the product is filled. This preliminary shaping action creates the tapered profile that accommodates product bulging while maintaining an appealing appearance, as the shape is established during package formation rather than being forced after filling.
Solution Approach 2:
The volume reduction is applied locally to specific regions of the package (creating portions with different volumes) rather than uniformly throughout. This allows the package to have a pleasing tapered appearance while providing sufficient volume in the bottom portion to contain product bulging, thus satisfying both aesthetic and functional requirements.
Data Source
Figure 1
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AI summary
There is described a sealed package (1, 1') containing a pourable food product and comprising a bottom portion (3), a top portion (4) and a main portion (5) interposed between the bottom portion (3) and top portion (4) and including a plurality of side wall portions (6); the main portion (5) is divided from the bottom portion (3) and said top portion (4) respectively by a bottom peripheral outline (8) and a top peripheral outline (9) extending transversally with respect to a longitudinal direction (A); each of the bottom peripheral outline (8) and the top peripheral outline (9) has a broken-line shape and is formed by a plurality of contour edges (8a, 8b, 8c; 9a, 9b, 9c) joined to each other; the bottom portion (3) comprises a quadrilateral bottom panel (10) delimited by the bottom peripheral outline (8) and extending orthogonal to the longitudinal direction (A); the top portion (4) comprises a quadrilateral top panel (14) delimited by the top peripheral outline (9) and extending transversally to the longitudinal direction (A); the area of the bottom panel (10) is different from the area of a top quadrilateral (Q) obtained by projecting, along the longitudinal direction (A), the top panel (14) on a reference plane (P) parallel to the bottom panel (10), crossing the package (1, 1') and containing at least one (9a) of the contour edges (8a, 8b, 8c; 9a, 9b, 9c) of the top peripheral outline (9).