Finding the volume of a stand up pouch

[phuelup]

Hello, I'm trying to figure out the volume of a stand up pouch for product packaging. All the capacity information that vendors have seems to be for the weight of coffee beans. That's not helpful for me; I need to know how many cups pouches of different sizes will hold so that I can decide what custom size to request based on the volume of my food product.

It seems like this would be a very complicated problem, but if anyone can help me figure it out, I'd appreciate it very much.

You'd probably seen this type of pouch on shelves in the store. They have the following characteristics:

• bottom gusset, making the bottom flare out to allow the pouch to stand up
• zipper top with no gusset, so the top if flat when closed
• When full and closed, the width tapers in from the bottom gusset to the top closure
• When full and closed, the depth taper in from the middle to each side

I've attached some images to try to help make it clear what this 3D shape looks like.

Can anyone help create a formula into which I can insert the three dimensions (width x height x bottom gusset) and the outcome is the volume? I'm not a math wiz, so the better you can simplify how to use the formula, the better. Even if it's an approximate volume, that would be helpful. It would be amazing if this could be in the form of a spreadsheet formula.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

 

[blamocur]

Personally, I wouldn't trust any purely mathematical solution. The actual shape of the pouch is not easy to figure out, and, most likely, depends on the materials used.

 

[Dr.Peterson]

I agree; but nominally I would expect the volume to be approximately proportional to the product of the three dimensions, assuming the basic shape remains the same, just as, say, an ellipsoid's volume is proportional to the product of its dimensions, so that a formula could be made based on some empirical measurements. (I would expect, however, to measure the height ("length") only up to the seal, so that may need adjustment. The same may be true of the width.)

Making a quick spreadsheet, however, the ratio of volume to product seems to vary significantly, especially for 250 g and 2000 g.

 

[The Highlander]

It seems like this would be a very complicated problem, but if anyone can help me figure it out, I'd appreciate it very much.

It is very complicated and not worth the effort of trying to produce a "formula"!

You'd probably seen this type of pouch on shelves in the store. They have the following characteristics:

Can anyone help create a formula into which I can insert the three dimensions (width x height x bottom gusset) and the outcome is the volume? I'm not a math wiz, so the better you can simplify how to use the formula, the better. Even if it's an approximate volume, that would be helpful. It would be amazing if this could be in the form of a spreadsheet formula.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

Hi @phuelup,

Is your "food product" in liquid form? (Your use of the term "cups" suggested such to me.)

Even if it isn't a liquid, it strikes me that your best bet is to go to a store and buy a carton of roughly the size you think you might wish to package you own product in then (carefully) open it and empty its contents into a separate container (no point in wasting whatever originally comes in the container! ?)

Then you can simply fill the empty container with water (leaving, if necessary, whatever space you judge you might wish to leave at the top when your product is in it) and empty it into a measuring jug. That will give you a direct measure of the capacity of the container and Bob's your Uncle! ?

You could try out as many variations of that exercise as necessary (and affordable) until you get the "right" size of container for your purposes. ?
If you buy one(s) with coffee beans you should be able to use the suppliers' chart to order the same size based on the weight of the coffee in the pack(s) you opt for. ?

Hope that helps.

Regards.

 

[phuelup]

I appreciate all three of your responses. I thought it might be too complicated of a request, but it was worth asking.

 

[phuelup]

It is very complicated and not worth the effort of trying to produce a "formula"!

Hi @phuelup,

Is your "food product" in liquid form? (Your use of the term "cups" suggested such to me.)

Even if it isn't a liquid, it strikes me that your best bet is to go to a store and buy a carton of roughly the size you think you might wish to package you own product in then (carefully) open it and empty its contents into a separate container (no point in wasting whatever originally comes in the container! ?)

Then you can simply fill the empty container with water (leaving, if necessary, whatever space you judge you might wish to leave at the top when your product is in it) and empty it into a measuring jug. That will give you a direct measure of the capacity of the container and Bob's your Uncle! ?

You could try out as many variations of that exercise as necessary (and affordable) until you get the "right" size of container for your purposes. ?
If you buy one(s) with coffee beans you should be able to use the suppliers' chart to order the same size based on the weight of the coffee in the pack(s) you opt for. ?

Hope that helps.

Regards.

Thank you very much for your thoughtful response.

My product is not liquid; it's a dry mix. But because all of the pouch descriptions out only state the capacity in terms of weight of coffee beans, and that's not helpful to me because my product is denser than coffee beans, so figuring out volume in a pouch seemed like a better solution.

Just grabbing pouches off the shelf isn't an accurate gauge, because typical products on shelves are not the right shape. Their opening and gusset are on the shorter side, while I need a pouch with the opening and guesset on the longer side. This would change the capacity pretty significantly for two pouches with the same flat width + height.

I think I'll just have to make my best guess based on my current pouches and perhaps it will be an iterative process as I package future batches of my product. Thanks again!

 

[blamocur]

But because all of the pouch descriptions out only state the capacity in terms of weight of coffee beans, and that's not helpful to me because my product is denser than coffee beans, so figuring out volume in a pouch seemed like a better solution.

If coffee beans' density does not vary much then you can divide their weight by their density to get the volume, can't you?