All you need is a little bit of air – and hey, how much does air cost?
The design tries to combine a regular refill pouch with one of the most common elements- Air. Air is used as reinforcement and a stabilizing element making the product rigid enough to stand on its own and resist the pressure of the dosing action. The product takes inspiration from the inflatable air cushion used in packaging. The product is fully plastic and is fully recyclable and can be made of bio plastics. Costs are marginally more than a refill pouch as air is used as the prop here.
Two interconnected columns of air are introduced on either side of the liquid in a regular refill package. The air columns are created by adding a flexible airtight laminated membrane in the same material as the rest of the pouch, on either side of the liquid in the center.
There is a hard plastic top which helps in distributing the pressure of the dosing action to the two air columns. The doser is fixed to this hard plastic top thereby reducing the plastic of a screw top.
The profile of the hard plastic top is deeper in the center. This serves two purposes- firstly, it acts as a beam and helps in dispersing the pressure to the air columns more efficiently; and secondly, it provides a spot for fixing an air valve for the end user to manually inflate the air columns.
The rest of the unit is in a flexible laminated membrane. The base of the unit has a K style bottom gusset seal. This allows the air columns and the liquid to have more contact with the horizontal surface where it is placed, thereby improving stability during dosing action.
The air columns are to be manually inflated by the end user through an air check valve. Therefore, the unit is manufactured and shipped in a deflated condition.
Advantages:
Ease of transportation – Light weight and low volume-same as that of a refill pouch.
Low Production cost- A little more than the existing refill pouch cost
Requires minimum modification to existing production machinery. Fits in the existing production cycle of flexible pouches.
Occupies less space in the garbage as it can be completely folded after removing the air.
All plastic- 100% recyclable. Can be made out of bio plastic which makes the product even greener
The design was our entry to a product design competition organised by Desall for Taplast packaging.
