Bottle Closing Assembly with Rotatable Tongues for Stable Retention
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing bottle closing assemblies are unstable and prone to falling during transportation, leading to economic losses and contamination risks due to incorrect positioning and excessive force required for closure, which compromises productivity and safety.
Innovation Solution
A closing assembly with a cage featuring a seat formed by a lower bead and rotatable tongues with a rounded head, a ring nut, and flexible retaining teeth, allowing for stable engagement with the bottle collar and reduced assembly force, ensuring the stopper remains securely attached and the assembly is stable during handling and storage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the closing assembly is inserted in the mouth of the bottle using conventional methods, then the bottle can be sealed, but the closing assembly becomes unstable and prone to falling during transportation
Solution Approach 1:
The cage is designed with flexible elements including rotatable tongues with rounded heads that can dynamically adapt to the bottle collar dimensions. These tongues rotate about hinge lines to accommodate variations in bottle size, providing continuous stable engagement during transportation and handling.
Solution Approach 2:
The closing assembly is divided into separate functional components: the cage with retaining teeth, the stopper, and the ring nut. This segmentation allows each component to perform its specific function optimally - the cage provides structural support and retention, while the flexible tongues provide adaptive engagement.
2Strength
If the cage thickness is increased to strengthen the structure, then the cage becomes stronger, but the force required to push the closing assembly downwards increases excessively
Solution Approach 1:
The cage walls have varying thicknesses optimized for specific functions: thicker at the base for structural strength and thinner at the sides to reduce closure force. The flexible tongues have localized thickness variations to provide both strength and flexibility in the engagement regions.
Solution Approach 2:
The cage incorporates thin flexible side walls that can deform elastically during closure, reducing the force needed to push the assembly down. The flexible retaining teeth and rotatable tongues provide localized flexibility while maintaining overall structural integrity.
3Reliability
If the diameter of the closing assembly is increased to improve retention, then the retention improves, but the assembly creates problems during assembly, lyophilization, labelling, storage and transportation
Solution Approach 1:
The rotatable tongues with rounded heads allow the closing assembly to dynamically adapt to different bottle diameters and handling conditions. The tongues can rotate and flex to accommodate variations in bottle size, enabling reliable retention without requiring an oversized assembly that would interfere with handling processes.
Data Source
Figure 1
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AI summary
A closing assembly (1000) for a bottle (1) is described, said assembly comprising a cage (100), a closing stopper (200) and a ring nut (300), wherein the cage (100) comprises a side wall (102) with an inner surface comprising a bead (110) and a lip (111b) spaced so as to form a seat (S) for a collar (4) of the bottle (1). Retaining teeth (130) are provided for keeping the head of the closing stopper in position. The outer surface of the side wall (102) of the cage comprises an annular cavity (109') and the side wall of the ring nut comprises an inner lower projection (310) configured to engage the annular cavity (109') in a preassembly configuration. The cage comprises a plurality of windows (105). Each window has a tongue connected to the lower edge of the window along a hinge line (11a). The lip (111b) is formed at the upper end of each tongue (111) and each tongue is rotatable elastically about the hinge line (111a).