Childproof Transdermal Packaging via Segmented Tear Tabs
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current pharmaceutical packaging for film or foil-shaped dosage forms is expensive, material-intensive, and difficult to open safely, as it requires high-barrier materials that are costly and inefficient to produce, while also posing challenges in ensuring childproof and senior-friendly access.
Innovation Solution
A sealed-edge bag design using tear-resistant packaging material with asymmetrically arranged gripping aids, allowing for easy opening without tools while preventing unintentional access, and produced in a material-saving manner using a surface-complementary tab design that reduces material usage and production waste.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If high-barrier packaging materials are used to protect film-shaped dosage forms from chemical damage, then protection against moisture and oxygen is improved, but production cost and material consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The packaging is divided into two separate packaging material elements (first and second elements) that can be processed independently and then sealed together. This segmentation allows for optimized material selection and reduced overall material consumption while maintaining protective functions.
Solution Approach 2:
The packaging employs composite packaging material elements that combine multiple material properties in a single element. These composite materials provide both barrier properties against moisture and oxygen and the necessary mechanical properties for easy opening, reducing the need for additional protective layers.
2Reliability
If packaging is designed to be childproof with high tear resistance, then safety against unintentional opening is improved, but ease of opening for adults deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The packaging material elements have different local properties: they are tear-resistant in most areas to prevent childproof opening, but include a localized weakness area with reduced tear resistance that enables easy opening by adults. This localized quality change resolves the contradiction between safety and ease of opening.
Solution Approach 2:
A weakness area is pre-formed in the packaging material during manufacturing, positioning the tear initiation point in advance. This preliminary action ensures that when an adult needs to open the packaging, they can easily initiate tearing at the predetermined location without requiring excessive force, while the rest of the packaging remains childproof.
3Reliability
If conventional packaging designs are used for film-shaped dosage forms, then protection from environmental influences is maintained, but production efficiency and material economy deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The packaging is segmented into two separate elements that can be processed in parallel during manufacturing, improving production efficiency. The segmented design also allows for optimized material usage in each element while maintaining overall protective functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The sealing of the two packaging material elements combines multiple functions into a single process step: it seals the packaging to protect against environmental influences while also creating the opening mechanism for easy access. This merging improves production efficiency by reducing the number of separate operations required.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2A~2D
Figure 3A~3C
AI summary
The present invention relates to individual dose packagings for transdermal therapeutic systems or film-like forms of administration in the form of a sealing edge bag that can be peeled back, and to a material-saving method for the production thereof, comprising two packaging material elements that are arranged on top of each other and of which at least one packaging material element is made of a tear-resistant packaging material that has low tear propagation resistance, characterized in that both packaging material elements, which are connected by a continuous sealing seam guided around the packaged item to form a sealing edge bag, comprise a tab at one end of the sealing edge bag that extends beyond the sealing edge. The tabs are substantially half as wide as the sealing edge bag and comprise a sealing region at the edge thereof facing away from the sealing edge, wherein they are connected to each other and wherein at least one of the packaging material elements has a structure for partially tearing the packaging material in the region of the tabs in that the tabs are not sealed with each other, wherein the structure for partially tearing the packaging material is not in contact with the edge of the packaging.