Collar System for Refillable Bottle Applicator
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing container designs fail to provide a convenient and secure method for attaching and detaching applicators, making it difficult to clean, refill, or recycle bottles while maintaining product integrity and preventing leakage.
Innovation Solution
A collar system with a flexible ring and buttons that deforms to slide past stop lugs on the bottle, allowing for easy attachment and detachment of applicators, forming a seal to prevent leakage and oxidation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a secure attachment method is used to prevent leakage and maintain product integrity, then reliability is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates due to difficulty in removing and reattaching applicators
Solution Approach 1:
The collar incorporates a flexible ring with buttons that can be pressed to dynamically change the state of the collar from locked to unlocked. This dynamic mechanism allows the collar to maintain a secure locked state during normal use while enabling easy state transition when buttons are pressed, resolving the contradiction between secure attachment and ease of operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The collar's buttons are designed to be pressed by the user's finger, which automatically triggers the release mechanism. The system serves itself by using the user's natural pressing action to activate the release, eliminating the need for complex tools or procedures to detach the applicator.
2Reliability
If a secure seal is formed to prevent leakage and oxidation, then product freshness is maintained, but device complexity increases due to the need for precise sealing mechanisms
Solution Approach 1:
The collar uses a flexible ring made of elastomeric material that forms the sealing interface. This flexible shell conforms to the bottle opening and applicator interface, creating an effective seal through its elasticity and flexibility rather than through complex rigid sealing mechanisms, thus reducing device complexity while maintaining reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The collar is constructed from composite materials including an elastomeric flexible ring and a rigid collar body, combining the sealing properties of flexible materials with the structural integrity of rigid materials to achieve both effective sealing and mechanical strength without requiring overly complex designs.
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
Enables easy removal and reattachment of applicators for cleaning, refilling, or recycling, while maintaining product freshness and extending shelf life by forming a secure seal.
Implementation Method 1
Pressure applied at the first and second buttons deforms the flexible ring and slides the at least one ring tab outward past the at least one stop lug of the bottle
Data Source
AI summary
A collar for use with a bottle that is refillable for refilling the bottle with a product, and containers comprised of bottles having the collar attached thereto. The collar is removably attachable to the bottle for removable attachment of an applicator to the bottle. The bottle contains a liquid, powder, or other flowable product that is applied with the applicator to a surface during use of the applicator. To remove the applicator from the bottle, a flexible ring of the collar is depressed with pressure applied at opposite buttons of the collar to deform the flexible ring and slide at least one ring tab of the flexible ring past at least one stop lug of the bottle to allow the collar to rotate with respect to the bottle and be removed from the bottle.