Core77

Being open at both ends, even with a second lid, would render the vessel much weaker than if it had a continuously shaped base. If plastic, the container could be squashed away from the lids' threads and leak. If glass, there'd be a much increased risk of shattering.

Nice idea though! Thinking rather than accepting.

First, I'm not a design expert.

From a usability point of view, here's my concern; there are many people with hands not large enough to hold your standard, say mayo jar, around the center of the jar. They hold from the bottom, then turn at an angle and twist the top. If they do that action with this jar, they'll a) risk opening the jar from the bottom lid if the cap on the top is turned in the opposite direction as the cap at the top, or b) tighten the cap on the bottom, causing those with weak wrists (elderly, children) more trouble making use of the bottom cap.

Just tossing that out there.

Surely, we have the technology. If we don't, we must develop it.

I proposed this while at a packaging job. IIRC, it got shot down because of the inability to create a hygenic seal on the packaging during the filling process.

It should be possible, although all of the machinery is set up for single opening bottles. They are blown molded, kind of like plastic bottles:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVKcISj2LfA

I think with some sort of package repulsive material that make the product not stick to it.

I would love to have these jars in my own pantry, but another trouble spot for captured peanut butter is the rim directly under the lid. If only this could have a more gradual taper, the two-sided jar would be able to provide total access to every last dollop of peanutty-buttery goodness.

Hi, I have been designing packaging for a couple of years, as far as I know this is not an original idea... it has been in the imaginery of pack designers for a while, like 2 cap bottles. But speaking of manufacturing process, I think it is possible to make a 2 lid container. It would be a little bit more complicated to produce, the containers need to be caped first, so an additional capping station must be added. The handling process of both sides uncapped containers may be difficult too, glass is molded cold and then gets tensioned when cooling.
I really don't see many advantages in this design, It would be better to have a wide mouth so you can use a spoon or similar to get the last bit of the product from its packaging.
And this topic reminded me the presentation you published about designer dark side, companies dark side may be a reason to make you buy 100 ml of product so you only use 95 and waste the rest. Every 20 you buy you wasted one, so porfit wins. I hope to see more comments...bye

well I'm involved into a glass industry manufacture.
The process for this kind of glass Jar is an "IS" machine.
The IS works (just two words) with a two step process. The first one push (so you will have the upper rings with threads) the glass up/down then the glass will be blown in a secondary mould (an in line process). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_production
At last you can see how having a two rim Jar sounds at last not so easy and why a good concept couldn't be translate in a successful industrial product.

I learned that you can use a can-opener on any can on both sides. Push one end of the opened can through to push all of its contents out. That would work too for many products that need dosing just through a simple bottom-up mechanism.

I happen to work in packaging and do quite a lot of work with bottles. Here are few reasons why this wouldn't appear on your local grocery store shelf anytime soon:

1. Cost. That's number one. Every manufacturer (MFG) takes into account the piece price of the cap, the bottle, and the contents--down to a fraction of a penny. The second lid presents a large additional cost of goods for a MFG.
2. Environment. For every bottle sold, you are putting an extra cap into the landfill; most caps don't get recycled. For a wide-mouth jar, the amount of plastic/aluminum in one cap is already very high. Putting two in there to justify consumer laziness will, at the very minimum, be a PR nightmare.
3. Manufacturing. (In case you're wondering, most plastic jars/bottles are made using injection blow-molding or extrusion blow-molding, neither of which can make a thread on both ends of a bottle.) For glass jars, it's even harder without having to blow a balloon-like shape first and then chopping off one end for a second opening. Tolerances for a leak-proof seal will not be acceptable. Threads need to have very tight tolerances to ensure a good seal; having threads on both sides is simply not feasible. To make a glass jar like the concept, the jar will need to be made very slowly--not blown, which brings me to...
4. Line speed. The speed at which bottles need to be manufactured and filled is insanely high. The range is usually in the hundreds of bottles per minute. When you are adding an additional cap--even if you can manufacture the bottle--that means you are essentially doubling the time to put caps on the bottle. This means you have a machine that will need to cap one end, fill it with contents, and then cap the other end (or else the contents will fall out).
5. Tamper-evidence. For products that need to have tamper-evidence such as:
- A tear-off band like Coca-cola bottles
- A pop-up lid like a jam bottle/jar
- Shrink-wrapped cap like a mouthwash or ketchup bottle
- Aluminum-sealed opening
(Obviously, some of those contents won't need to have a 2nd lid but just for reference, I've added those examples.)
You will, again, need to double the time and/or cost of that portion of the manufacturing process. Perhaps more importantly, you are adding an additional area where the consumer will need to check for tampered bottles--once on top and once on bottom. You have essentially introduced an extra area of contamination.
6. Shipping/Energy/Others. This is related to both cost and the environment. MFG's have started to move away from glass jars because they are very energy-intensive to make and very expensive to transport due to the weight of the glass. PB and jam jars have started to move to plastic, which, at least in theory, are more easily/likely to be recycled.

I'm not trying to be a "Debbie Downer", but those are the realities. Nice concept, but I can't say it was wholly thought through.

I'm no expert but basically the way you make jars is to have a bubble of semimolten glass, then you put it in a form and force air into it so it expands to fit the walls; I don't see it as being too difficult to have two air inlet pipes for the bubble, or alternatively you could just make a break line at the bottom and bust it off once it's cooled a bit. Glass is 100% recyclable so while it would be a little extra work you could do that with the same equipment you already have instead of having to build a new dual inlet former.

I think the toothpaste industry has a formidable design for extracting the most of a product. Perishables would benefit greatly from a container that wasn't rigid. The rigid container allows air to remain in the container when not in use which promotes microbial growth, dehydration or moisture contamination.

I am no expert at plastic molding process but if anyone has noticed closely, most blenders have two ends and are made of both plastic and glass. I think the biggest problem for this jar would be the manufacturing costs. However, that shouldn't stop it from being sold as an aftermarket jar at places like Ikea or BBB.
Good concept overall.

Jars are filled usually while hot, thats how they preserve the food inside, the heat would kill the seals on the underside lid while being filled as usually the lid isn't added until the Jar has cooled....

Structurally its weak....

From a marketing point of view most consumers would see it as a fridge disaster waiting to happen, visually it won't appeal, and the particular problem of getting the last bit out doesn't really effect wide mouth jars like this as much as other products....

Not to mention how is it in the interest of the company selling you their products to spend more on the consumer spending less? (logically if they use more they will buy less, albeit not a huge a mount, but in the grand scheme of things these small amounts add up to a lot)....

What you really need to do is SAVE the company money while solving the problems that face the consumers otherwise your ideas will just get binned whether they give you the real reason or not!