Portable Bag Roll Dispenser With Rotating Shutter Access
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing bag dispensing devices are cumbersome, expose bag rolls to child manipulation and environmental elements, and use expensive polymers like ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer (EVOH) for odor retention, necessitating a more efficient and cost-effective solution.
Innovation Solution
A portable bag dispenser unit with a casing, rotatable cap mechanism, and axle system that allows easy access and manipulation of bag rolls, using a shutter to control the dispensing opening and enabling easy installation and spooling of bag rolls, while potentially using alternative polymers for odor retention.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If a shutter mechanism is added to protect the bag roll, then protection from elements and child manipulation is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The dispenser is divided into separate functional components: a protective casing, a rotatable cap mechanism with shutter, and an axle assembly. This segmentation allows the shutter to provide protection when closed while enabling easy access when opened, resolving the contradiction between protection and accessibility without requiring complex locking mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The shutter is made rotatable rather than fixed, allowing it to dynamically transition between closed (protective) and open (accessible) states. This dynamic design enables the same component to provide both protection and access functionality, reducing overall device complexity.
2Reliability
If EVOH polymer is used for odor retention, then odor containment performance is improved, but material cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent allows for parameter changes in the polymer material selection. Instead of being fixed to expensive EVOH, the system can accommodate alternative polymers with different odor retention characteristics, enabling cost optimization while maintaining adequate odor containment performance for the application.
3Ease of operation
If the dispenser is made portable and compact, then ease of operation is improved, but protection from elements may be reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The bag roll is nested within the protective casing, which itself contains the axle mechanism. This nested arrangement maximizes protection within a compact footprint, allowing the dispenser to remain portable while maintaining environmental protection for the bag roll.
Data Source
AI summary
A bag dispenser unit for dispensing bags may have a casing having an inner cavity for receiving a roll of bags and defining an opening for outletting a free end of the roll of bags to dispense bags. A cap mechanism may be rotatably mounted to the casing in a first rotational degree of freedom, the cap mechanism having a shutter portion sized to close the opening, the cap mechanism rotatable between a first orientation in which the shutter portion closes the opening, and a second orientation in which the shutter portion is away from the opening. An axle rotatably may be mounted to the casing or the cap mechanism in a second rotational degree of freedom and having an axle support configured to be engaged with an interior of the roll of bags.