Bulk Bin Lid Biasing for Automatic Closure and Clean Product Access
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing bulk bin devices for selling loose products by weight often face challenges in facilitating easy product access while minimizing contamination and maintaining a simple design with few components.
Innovation Solution
A bulk bin device with a hingedly connected lid that automatically closes using a resilient tongue biasing mechanism, allowing full opening for easy product access and reducing contamination risks, while maintaining a cost-effective and component-efficient design.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the lid is made openable for easy product access, then customer access to products is improved, but the risk of contamination increases
Solution Approach 1:
The resilient tongue is pre-loaded in a biased state during assembly, storing elastic potential energy that automatically activates when the lid is released. This preliminary action ensures the lid closes automatically after each opening, resolving the contradiction between easy access and contamination prevention.
Solution Approach 2:
The lid system is designed to be self-closing through the resilient tongue mechanism. After a customer opens the lid to access products, the lid automatically returns to the closed position without requiring manual intervention, thereby preventing contamination while maintaining ease of access.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If the lid is made to close automatically to reduce contamination, then product freshness is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The resilient tongue is designed as a simple, inexpensive elastic component that can be easily manufactured and replaced if needed. This approach reduces device complexity by using a basic elastic element rather than a complex mechanical closing system.
Solution Approach 2:
The resilient tongue's elastic properties are optimized to provide sufficient closing force. By adjusting the elasticity parameter of the tongue, the system achieves automatic lid closure with a simple component rather than requiring complex mechanical systems.
3Ease of operation
If the lid is made to stay fully open for easy picking, then customer convenience is improved, but the lid may not close properly increasing contamination risk
Solution Approach 1:
The lid system transitions from a static closed position to a dynamic open state when pulled, and automatically returns to the closed state through the resilient tongue's elastic recovery. This dynamic behavior ensures the lid can be fully opened for convenient picking while reliably closing to prevent contamination.
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
Facilitates easy product picking and reduces contamination by ensuring automatic lid closure, maintaining product freshness and customer safety, while keeping the design simple and cost-effective.
Implementation Method 1
biasing means comprising a resilient tongue arranged for urging the first lid from the rear position towards the front position
Implementation Method 2
When a certain quantity of product is picked out, a corresponding quantity of the product in the container hence slides down to the space proximate to the pick-out opening
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3a
AI summary
Bulk bin device for storing and feeding sell-by-weight loose products, which device comprises a container (10) for storing said products and for feeding the products towards a front opening (30) of the container and a first lid (32). The first lid is hingedly connected to the container (10) and arranged pivotal about a horizontal pivotal axis (PA) between a forward position at which the first lid (32) closes said front opening 30) and a rear position at which the front opening (30) is open for allowing pick-out of products. The centre of gravity (CG) of the first lid (32) is, in the first lid's rear position, positioned behind a vertical line (VL) through the pivotal axis (PA). The device further comprises biasing means (40, 42, 42a) arranged for urging the first lid (32) from the rear position towards the front position.