Beverage Container Cap Attachment for Sequential Tastant Dispensing
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Solution Overview
Problem
There is a need to enhance the taste perception of tastants like sugar and salt in beverages, allowing for equivalent taste impressions with lower levels of addition, in line with health recommendations from organizations such as the World Health Organization.
Innovation Solution
An attachment for a beverage container that includes a cap with a tube passing through it, a container to hold a liquid, and a restrictor to control the flow of the liquid. This setup allows for the sequential dispensing of a liquid and a beverage with differing tastant concentrations, ensuring the liquid exits before the beverage, creating a combined taste experience in a single sip.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If higher concentrations of tastants like sugar and salt are added to beverages, then taste perception is enhanced, but health recommendations are violated and excessive intake occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The device pre-mixes a concentrated tastant solution (liquid) in a separate container before dispensing. This preliminary preparation allows the tastant to be added to the beverage at the point of consumption, ensuring enhanced taste perception without requiring high concentrations throughout the entire beverage volume.
Solution Approach 2:
A separate liquid container and dispensing mechanism act as an intermediary between the tastant source and the beverage. This intermediary system controls the precise delivery of tastants, allowing enhanced taste perception while maintaining lower overall concentrations in the consumed beverage.
2Productivity
If multiple liquids are dispensed simultaneously, then dispensing efficiency is high, but sequential taste experience cannot be achieved
Solution Approach 1:
The dispensing system is designed to be dynamic, allowing transition between dispensing modes. The liquid container can be positioned to enable sequential dispensing when needed for taste experience, or repositioned/removed to allow direct beverage dispensing for efficiency, providing operational flexibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The dispensing function is segmented into separate pathways: one for the concentrated liquid and one for the beverage. This segmentation allows independent control of each liquid's dispensing timing and sequence, enabling both efficient simultaneous dispensing and controlled sequential dispensing depending on the desired taste experience.
3Ease of operation
If a complex multi-component dispensing system is used, then sequential dispensing of liquid and beverage is achieved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The attachment device is designed with multi-functionality: the same basic structure can dispense beverages alone or in combination with the liquid container for enhanced taste. The tube system and cap design serve multiple purposes - they work with or without the liquid container, reducing the need for entirely separate systems for different dispensing modes.
Solution Approach 2:
The liquid container nests within or attaches to the existing beverage container and cap structure. This nesting approach allows the sequential dispensing functionality to be added without requiring a completely separate complex system, as the new component integrates with and utilizes parts of the existing beverage container structure.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The attachment effectively enhances the taste perception of tastants by allowing lower concentrations to achieve the same taste impression, aligning with health recommendations while providing a seamless taste experience in a single sip.
Implementation Method 1
a restrictor between the opening of the container and the tube to control and/or restrict the flow of the liquid from the container into the tube
Data Source
AI summary
An attachment for a beverage container may include a cap configured to attach to an opening in the beverage container. The cap includes an opening. The attachment also include a tube passing through the cap. A beverage in the beverage container can flow through the tube and out of the opening in the cap. The attachment also includes a container attached to the tube and configured to hold a liquid. The container includes an opening to allow the liquid to flow from the container into the tube and out of the opening in the cap. The attachment also comprises a restrictor between the opening of the container and the tube, such that the liquid begins to exit the opening in the cap before the beverage begins to exit the opening in the cap.