Breakaway Laminar Cutlery Kit for Hygienic Use Indication
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing disposable cutlery sets lack an attractive and cost-effective design that signals previous use while maintaining hygiene and compact storage capabilities.
Innovation Solution
A set of cutlery utensils manufactured from a single rigid laminar sheet with strategically formed gaps and continuities, allowing utensils to be separated by breaking the continuities, made from materials like thermoplastics or wood, enabling easy detachment and attractive consumer appeal.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If cutlery utensils are connected using a connecting piece as in prior art, then the set provides cleanliness and compact storage, but the design complexity increases and manufacturing cost rises
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the cutlery utensils directly into a single rigid laminar sheet without separate connecting pieces. The utensils are formed as integral parts of the sheet, eliminating the need for additional connecting components while maintaining compact storage and hygiene benefits.
Solution Approach 2:
The rigid laminar sheet serves multiple functions simultaneously: it acts as the structural base, the connecting medium, and the packaging material. This multi-functionality eliminates the need for separate connecting pieces and reduces overall design complexity.
2Ease of manufacture
If cutlery utensils are manufactured from a single rigid laminar sheet with gaps and continuities, then manufacturing cost decreases and consumer appeal increases, but the structure becomes more complex to manufacture
Solution Approach 1:
The rigid laminar sheet is segmented into multiple utensil portions through strategically formed gaps. These gaps divide the continuous sheet into separable utensil sections while maintaining the overall structural integrity during manufacturing and storage.
Solution Approach 2:
The continuities in the sheet are designed to be breakable, allowing the structure to transition from a unified stored state to separated usable utensils. This dynamic characteristic enables easy detachment while maintaining manufacturing simplicity.
3Loss of information
If cutlery utensils are released by breaking continuities in the sheet, then the signal of previous use becomes clear, but the ease of operation decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The gaps and continuities are pre-formed during manufacturing to create predetermined break points. This preliminary structuring ensures that when users need to separate utensils, they can do so easily by breaking at these pre-designed locations, maintaining both clarity of use signal and ease of operation.
Data Source
AI summary
A cutlery kit configured from a laminar sheet which manifests its previous use through the detachment of its parts. The kit is comprised of two or more daily, known utensils selected from a spoon, a fork and a knife, which are jointly located in a single plane and are separated by thin, continuous dotted or cut lines. The utensils fit into each other in a complementary form, counter-form way and remain joined together by the presence of continuities in the surface where these continuities interrupt the dotted lines. Each of these cutlery utensils is detached from the others through breaking, done by the user, of these continuities on the surface.