Designing a Multifunctional Vacuum Sealer using TRIZ Principles

摘要

Preservation techniques assures the safety, stability, cleanliness and nutrition of products. An effective preservation technique includes vacuum packaging. However, issues pertaining to the difficulty of opening these vacuum sealed packages do exist, sometimes severely to a point where it causes wrap rage or package rage which is a usual term for being frustrated when opening hard-to-open packages. Various injuries have also been reported concerning individuals who attempt to open these vacuum sealed packages. These packages also pose a threat to the environment as they are thrown away and mostly end up in landfills. A solution could lie in the design of an appropriate vacuum sealer that addresses these issues. Thus, this study aims to innovate and design a multifunctional vacuum sealer using TRIZ techniques. Several function models were investigated along with the cause and effect chain analysis, upon which 3 major engineering contradictions were established. These contradictions were resolved with the recommendation of 3 inventive principles, namely local quality, taking out and universality. Finally, researchers proposed a zip lock sealing machine with a zip lock sealing feature (local quality) tear notch (taking out) and 4-in-1 process (universality) which unifies the alignment, zip sealing, cooling and cutting process. The new design?s impact reflects on enhancement on numerous characteristics associated with human limitation, safety and health as well as environmental issues.