Report

on
Redesign of Milk packets, Oil packets, Medicine
packaging and solutions to Recycle PET bottles

Submitted by
Anand Babu -

16126006

E. Ravishankar -

16126009

Madhu Prasath S -

16126017

Nachiappan M -

16126020

Purushothaman R -

16126023

1. Product: Milk packets and Oil Packets

2. Problems people face in milk and oil packets in everyday situations

The probable problems people face while handling milk packets and oil
packets are as follows
Emptying the full content in the packet
Storage of the opened pack
Spilling over the edges while pouring

3. Solution proposal
3.1 Emptying the full content in the packet - Nano coated packets
The main reason some of the oil or milk contents get retained on its packet
inner surface because the inner surface of the packet is not a liquid repellent or
we can say slightly hydrophilic.
Hydrophilic is defined by the geometry of water on a flat surface
specifically, the angle between a droplets edge and the surface underneath it.
This is called the contact angle. If the droplet spreads, wetting a large area of the
surface, then the contact angle is less than 90 degrees and that surface is
considered hydrophilic, or water-loving (from the Greek words for water, hydro,
and love, philos).
To eliminate this concern we can provide a dry liquid-repellent nano-coating
that acts as a powerful shield against water and other liquid substances. At the
nano level, the spray covers a surface with an umbrella of air so that liquid
bounces right off.
When we coat the surface of the packet with spray coating, it is actually
filled with nanoparticles that form a very rough surface. It has billions of
interstitial spaces, and those spaces, along with the nanoparticles, reach up and
grab the air molecules, and cover the surface with air. It's an umbrella of air all
across it, and that layer of air is what the liquid hits and glides off.

3.2 Storage of the opened packet

Oil packets:
In general oil packets are used for a longer period and shall require frequent
usage while cooking over a period of time. And hence our proposal is to provide a
tetra pack for oils with a magnetic strip opening from the side. The proposed
model of a tetra pack with an opening with a magnetic strip is shown below.

Advantages of the proposed model

It can be incorporated easily in the production line with minimal changes.
Less labour intervention is required during the manufacturing process
The magnetic strip shall lock firmly on when comparing to a cap at the top of
the packet.

Milk packets:
In general milk packets are used and stored for a shorter period say for a
maximum of 2 days.
And hence, it is not practically feasible to use a tetra pack for fresh milk.
Therefore, we propose to incorporate Ziploc below the packet sealing.
In this way, the packet shall be stored at ease and there wont be any
spilling from the packet.

Medicine Packaging
Problem statement:
Medicines packaging and ease of medicines consumption
List of problems
1.
2.
3.
4.

Name
Expiry Date of Medicines in Tablets
Half Tablet consumption
Difficulty in usage for blind people

Proposed solution(s)
1.
2.
3.
4.

Biologically soluble colour changing pigment (food grade)

Tablet cutter
Braille system on the tablets
Strip Line in between tablets

Features

Biologically soluble colour changing pigment (food grade)

Each of these tablets will be coated with a biologically soluble changing pigment
(food grade) which changes colour after the expiry date. Thus each tablet will be
coated with some particular colour (Eg. Red) and all those tablets for which expiry
date has not yet crossed shall be this colour. If the expiry date has crossed, the
coating colour will be changed to black which is indicative of the tablet that has
crossed its expiry date. This will be also beneficial to tablet users who use a
common tablet box for all their tablets.

Tablet cutter

A small plastic projection will be provided on the cover of the tablet (as shown in
the fig). The tablet can be obtained as either half or full tablets depending on
which direction the tablet cover is pressed.
Braille system
Braille system can be used to have a projection of the expiry date on the tablet.
The expiry date can be indicated by a four digit code (0116- Jan 2016).
Strip line between tablets

Strip line can be provided to separate each tablets so that individual tablets can be
cut separately in a hassle free manner.

Plastic bottle disposal

Problems:
As on date the PET Bottles are either disposed as land fills or incenerated. But both
of these methods have certain drawbacks.
Land fills:
-

Water flow gets seepage affected

Land soil gets polluted
Soil microbe activity is reduced

In short, Landfill is a postponement of a solution for these PET bottles

Incineration:
-

Air pollution
Cost involved is very high
Global warming and monsoon failure

Possible solutions:
Recently these PET bottles are used in construction of Roads. We propose to
extend this solution to manufacturing of concrete structures. Also, these PET bottles may
be used while making house hold articles like plastic tables, plastic doors and other plastic
structures.
To promote recycling of bottles, we suggest to introduce a monetary incentive scheme for
promoting people to return the used bottles in the retail outlets or some collection
centres. It has to ensured that the incentive proposed should be less than the
manufacturing cost of PET bottle. From the collection centres, these bottles can be
further recycled.