Collapsible Container with Nested Shell and Insert for Compact Storage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing containers for indoor and outdoor use, such as coolers and bins, are typically rigid and bulky, making them difficult to store and transport due to their stiff design, which compromises their compactness and mobility.
Innovation Solution
The development of collapsible containers with a nested shell and insert structure, featuring a wider taper angle for partitioning and thermal insulation, allowing for expansion and collapse, and incorporating flexible and rigid tiers with living hinges for snap-through movement and stability, enabling compact storage and easy transport.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If containers are designed as rigid one-piece bodies to be durable and shape-retaining, then strength and reliability are improved, but volume and ease of storage deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The container wall is divided into multiple collapsible tiers that can be stacked and nested. Each tier includes rigid support structures (annular ribs, vertical supports) that maintain strength when expanded, while allowing the entire structure to collapse vertically for compact storage. The segmentation enables the container to transition between a strong rigid state during use and a compact nested state for storage.
Solution Approach 2:
The collapsible tiers are designed to nest within each other when collapsed, with each tier containing the next smaller tier. This nesting arrangement reduces the storage volume to a fraction of the expanded container volume while maintaining the structural integrity of each individual tier through rigid support elements.
2Reliability
If containers are made rigid to maintain shape and structural integrity, then reliability is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The container incorporates dynamic elements including flexible membranes that allow controlled collapse, living hinges that enable snap-through motion between expanded and collapsed states, and movable tiers that can be independently manipulated. These dynamic features make the container easy to collapse and expand while the rigid support structures maintain structural integrity during operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The container utilizes parameter changes in material behavior, transitioning from a rigid expanded state to a flexible collapsed state. The living hinges and flexible membranes allow the structure to change its mechanical properties dynamically, enabling easy operation during collapse while maintaining reliability when expanded and in use.
3Ease of manufacture
If containers are designed as rigid one-piece bodies, then manufacturing simplicity is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The container is segmented into multiple standardized tiers that can be manufactured using similar processes and then assembled together. Each tier includes standardized components such as annular ribs, vertical supports, and flexible membranes that can be produced efficiently and replicated across multiple units, reducing overall manufacturing complexity despite the increased structural sophistication.
Solution Approach 2:
The container employs composite construction combining rigid materials (for support ribs and structural elements) with flexible materials (for membranes and collapsible walls). This composite approach allows each component to be manufactured using appropriate processes for its material properties, simplifying production while achieving the complex functionality of a rigid yet collapsible 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 solution provides durable, shape-retaining, and thermally insulated containers that can be easily expanded for use and collapsed for storage or transport, enhancing their usability and convenience while maintaining structural integrity.
Implementation Method 1
providing an air space between the insert container and shell to serve as a thermally insulating layer between the interior of the insert container and the ambient outside the shell
Implementation Method 2
a sufficient compressive force will invert or fold the flexible shell wall section tiers
Implementation Method 3
the middle shell wall section tier resists being folded or inverted
Data Source
AI summary
Collapsible indoor and outdoor containers having a collapsible wall section with shape-retaining characteristics are disclosed. In particular, collapsible coolers, fish bins, and wheeled vertical bins are provided. The collapsible wall section may include foldable tiers of a flexible material, each tier having at least one stable, relatively expanded position and at least one stable, relatively collapsed position; and an intervening, non-folding tier composed of a different, relatively stiff or rigid material. The coolers, fish bins, and wheeled vertical bins are each advantageously provided with a collapsible insert container that nests within and collapses together with a shell of the respective container, the respective wall folds of the shell and insert meshing together to result in a combined collapsed vertical dimension as small or nearly as small as that of the collapsed shell alone.