Anti-Reverse Stopper Baffle for Food Waste Backflow Prevention

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Solution Overview

Problem

Conventional food waste disposer baffles face challenges in simultaneously achieving noise attenuation, easy food waste entry, preventing foreign object entry, and maintaining adequate water flow, often requiring baffle replacement for different installation setups or environments.

Innovation Solution

A baffle design featuring an outer rim, flaps, and anti-reverse stoppers that provide resistance to upward flap movement, allowing air and water passage, and are integrally formed with the rim to ensure consistent performance across varying installation setups.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Object-affected harmful factors

If a conventional baffle is used to prevent splash back and noise, then noise attenuation is improved, but water flow is obstructed causing backup into the sink

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvenoise attenuationVSAvoidwater flow

Core Design Contradiction:

Object-affected harmful factorsVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The baffle is segmented into multiple vertical flaps spaced around the circumference, creating individual flow passages between them. This segmentation allows water to flow through multiple channels while maintaining noise reduction, resolving the contradiction between noise attenuation and water flow productivity

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

2Object-affected harmful factors

If a conventional baffle is used to prevent foreign objects from entering, then protection is improved, but food waste entry becomes difficult requiring user intervention

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveforeign object preventionVSAvoidfood waste entry

Core Design Contradiction:

Object-affected harmful factorsVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The vertical flaps are designed to be flexible and dynamic, allowing them to bend outward when food waste is pushed against them, creating temporary openings for food entry. During normal operation, they remain upright to prevent foreign objects, thus resolving the contradiction between protection and ease of operation

Inventive Principle:

Principle #15Dynamics

3Reliability

If air vent openings are provided in the baffle to facilitate air venting, then air displacement is improved, but water flow is obstructed when water blocks the openings

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveair ventingVSAvoidwater flow

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The vertical flaps act as intermediaries that can be pushed outward by air pressure during air venting, creating temporary passages for air to escape. During water flow, the flaps return to their upright position to maintain water flow paths, thus resolving the contradiction between air venting reliability and water flow productivity

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Data Source

PatentUS12454817B2Baffle with anti-reverse stoppers

Publication Date: 2025.10.28 INSINKERATOR LLC

AI summary

Food waste disposers, particularly food waste disposers for installation under a sink, can include a mounting assembly that has a baffle. Each baffle of the present technology can include an outer rim, a plurality of flaps that are attached to the outer rim by a hinge and extend radially inwardly from the outer rim. Each flap can have an anti-reverse stopper that is intended to resist upward movement of the flap during operation, to prevent food waste from backing-up out of the disposer into the sink.