Xinova seeks the disclosure of inventions to a thinner, extra-durable snack bags. Using less packaging material WILL conserve resources and save millions of dollars on materials.
We want to design thinner, extra-durable snack bags. Using less packaging material WILL conserve resources and save millions of dollars on materials. The trouble is, a trimmed-down bag would likely lead to more holes in existing packaging. That’s a deal-breaker. Snack bags are typically designed to be thick precisely to avoid holes during packaging and shipping. Typical snack packaging is currently comprised of a two-ply laminate film bonded by a layer of polyethylene. It altogether serves three functions:
- Inner layer preserves freshness (by keeping out moisture
and air) - Outer layer displays marketing graphics
- Bonding layer is overly thick to prevent punctures
For top consideration, invention ideas should be environmentally-friendly (recyclable or compostable) and focus on:
- Improving puncture resistance, perhaps by considering:
- Replacement to the bonding polyethylene layer
- Adding an additional protective layer
Summary
- Mostly maintaining the existing multi-layer laminate
film structures - Being compatible with existing manufacturing
equipment
Problem: Snacks are of different shapes, weights and sizes. However, one thing that they all have in common is that they fall three feet (0.9 meter) from the top of a vertical form filling seal (VFFS) machine to the bottom of the bag. The force of this fall in conjunction with these snack characteristics can damage the bag; furthermore, gyrations from transport also cause punctures, especially if the snack has fragmented thereby producing sharp edges.
Solution: A more puncture-resistant, plastic film of similar price would allow a thinner yet just-as-robust film to be used. This would decrease material costs as well as refuse by reducing the amount of required material. Besides costs, there are quality issues. Punctured bags look bad and have stale, inferior snacks. This damages the brand and makes it less likely a customer will purchase again
This opportunity comes from the efforts of Xinova’s R&D Consulting and Innovation team.
Are you up for the challenge?