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The guy who made it so difficult to open your bag of potato chips

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Re: The guy who made it so difficult to open your bag of potato chips

#51

Post by graywh »

ahelwer wrote: post #48
TamDenholm wrote: post #2

I love learning about things I would never come across in everyday life, like how a packing machine works and the problems no one would ever think to think of like air pressure and altitudes. Then also the restrictions put in place and how to come up with a creative solution to a problem. This is the kind of stuff I live for.

The air pressure certainly has an effect. I live in an only somewhat-high-altitude city (Calgary) and most of the chip bags you see are puffed up like balloons.

Once had a bag of chips burst while driving up into the Rockies.

Re: The guy who made it so difficult to open your bag of potato chips

#52

Post by bmelton »

derleth wrote: post #45
rdtsc wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To prevent shrinkage and increase product visibility, Which is also a feature to discourage shoplifting.

Out of curiosity, what did you think 'shrinkage' meant in that context?

I read the original comment and (before scrolling down) was tempted to chime in that 'in this context, shrinkage means "theft"' before realizing the discussion had already been had.

I could very easily see someone as having read that as physically shrinking in size, perhaps due to compression by repeated handling, as would happen in a store, or heat or other uhhh... harsh environmental factors commonly found in retail establishments. (Sorry, I couldn't think of a second good excuse)

Re: The guy who made it so difficult to open your bag of potato chips

#53

Post by bmelton »

sciurus wrote: post #49
ChuckMcM wrote: post #6

At 4:10 in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkqBbr7Ewsw you can see a VFFS machine in action. (I find 'how its made' to be musak for nerds but that is a different post :-)

You can link directly to 4:10 in the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkqBbr7Ewsw&t=4m10s

Holy shit that's brilliant.

I admittedly haven't been to Youtube in forever, but that actually got me to click, if only to find out how (other than altering the querystring by hand) you did it.

I still didn't see how to do it though. Is that a logged-in option perhaps or am I just missing something?

Re: The guy who made it so difficult to open your bag of potato chips

#54

Post by nknight »

unconed wrote: post #42
MartinCron wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was just thinking about how Kettle Chips have a small but pronounced notch that you can grab and pull. I haven't had any angst opening a bag of chips in a long time.

And here i was, cursing the idiot at kettle who thought eating chips from the side of the bag was a good idea. Opening from the top allows for easy reach and easy reseal.

Well, you're doing it wrong.

From the perspective of a right-hander: Hold the bag upright with the notch on the left, use your left hand to grasp the upper-left corner, while using your right thumb and index finger to begin tearing downward. As soon as you break into the actual cavity, begin tearing rightward.

Invert appropriately for a left-hander.

Or just do what I do and keep a pocket knife around. Shrug

Re: The guy who made it so difficult to open your bag of potato chips

#56

Post by chc »

glimcat wrote: post #28

"The point here is that while technical options exist to prevent premature opening of the bag, such as reducing the initial air pressure in the bag, attempting to add this to the existing processing equipment would be a nightmare. So it was necessary to increase the seal strength." You could also reduce the air pressure in the factory , e.g. by building it in one of the aforementioned high-altitude regions.

That would be even more expensive than upgrading a bunch of equipment. The whole point is that the solution had to be retrofit onto existing facilities at minimal cost.

Re: The guy who made it so difficult to open your bag of potato chips

#57

Post by batista »

Daniel_Newby wrote: post #34

> Other options besides a stronger seal are technically possible, but not economically feasible. It would have cost next to nothing to attach slabs of foam rubber or gentle spring plates to the sealer. As the two sides move together, the air is gently squeezed out of the bag first. Sheer incompetence.

And who said they wanted to squeeze the air out --and have the deflated look, easy crushing and all?

When one talks about the "sheer incompetence" of a group of industry experts set to find a solution to a problem in an internet comment thread, while putting out an inane "solution" of his own that doesn't take all facts into account --and when he never knew all the constraints in the first place--, well, the Dunning–Kruger effect springs to mind...

Re: The guy who made it so difficult to open your bag of potato chips

#58

Post by dbarlett »

Jimmie wrote: post #41
K2h wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

agreed - and then lets ask them about the total fabrication that they are biodegradable.

Biodegradable... eventually. edit: So I looked it up and it should only take 14 weeks in an active compost pile. I wonder if anyone has ever tested it?

Almost no change after 25 weeks in a home compost pile: http://cockeyed.com/science/compost_chips/sunchips.php

Re: The guy who made it so difficult to open your bag of potato chips

#59

Post by PakG1 »

nknight wrote: post #54
unconed wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And here i was, cursing the idiot at kettle who thought eating chips from the side of the bag was a good idea. Opening from the top allows for easy reach and easy reseal.

Well, you're doing it wrong. From the perspective of a right-hander: Hold the bag upright with the notch on the left, use your left hand to grasp the upper-left corner, while using your right thumb and index finger to begin tearing downward. As soon as you break into the actual cavity, begin tearing rightward. Invert appropriately for a left-hander. Or just do what I do and keep a pocket knife around. Shrug

This post you made is just begging you to read The Design of Everyday Things. :) I'm going through it right now, amazing book. Highly recommended.

Re: The guy who made it so difficult to open your bag of potato chips

#60

Post by rdtsc »

derleth wrote: post #45
rdtsc wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To prevent shrinkage and increase product visibility, Which is also a feature to discourage shoplifting.

Out of curiosity, what did you think 'shrinkage' meant in that context?

Wow yeah I was really confused. English is my third language and I can often figure words that I don't know from the context except that in this case I interpreted 'shrinkage' as some kind of a tendency do produce smaller products (electronics get smaller for instance). And I thought ok it seems a large package makes the product more visible on the shelves. Then I thought "ok" actually a large package would be hard to sneak under one's shirt. So it would be good for that as well.
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