Child Resistant Container With Compressible Shell
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Solution Overview
Problem
Child-resistant containers pose difficulties for the elderly or disabled, as they often require two separate actions that can be challenging for individuals with limited grip strength or dexterity, while still needing to ensure child safety.
Innovation Solution
A container design featuring a dispensing cartridge and outer shell with a cooperating catch arrangement that transitions from a locked to an unlocked state through resilient compression, allowing sliding motion between the components, requiring a single action to open the container while maintaining child-resistant features.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a threaded lid requiring two-step process (axial pressing then rotational twisting) is used, then child resistance is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates for elderly or disabled individuals
Solution Approach 1:
The container is divided into two main segments: an outer shell and an inner dispensing cartridge. The opening mechanism is segmented into two sequential actions: first axially pressing the cartridge, then rotating it. This segmentation allows each action to be simpler and more manageable than a traditional threaded lid, improving ease of operation while maintaining child resistance through the required two-step process.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of rotating the lid off the container body (traditional approach), the invention inverts the mechanism by having the inner cartridge rotate relative to the outer shell after axial pressing. The cartridge rotates within the shell rather than the lid separating completely, providing a more controlled and accessible opening mechanism for individuals with limited grip strength.
2Ease of operation
If a single-action opening mechanism is used, then ease of operation is improved, but child resistance deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The opening mechanism is divided into two distinct sequential actions: axial pressing followed by rotation. The cartridge must first be pressed axially to disengage from the outer shell, then rotated to open. This segmentation ensures that a single simple action is insufficient to open the container, maintaining child resistance while keeping each individual action simple enough for elderly or disabled individuals to perform.
3Strength
If the outer shell is made rigid for structural strength, then strength is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates due to inability to flex for disengagement
Solution Approach 1:
The container is segmented into a rigid outer shell and a more compliant inner dispensing cartridge. The outer shell maintains structural strength and rigidity for protection, while the inner cartridge is designed with flexibility to allow axial pressing and rotation. This segmentation enables the strong outer shell to provide structural integrity while the flexible inner cartridge facilitates easy opening through the required pressing and rotating actions.
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 design allows for easy access by compressing the outer shell, which flexes to disengage the catch arrangement, enabling the dispensing cartridge to slide open, thus facilitating opening without requiring strong grip or multiple steps, while maintaining child safety through multiple action steps.
Implementation Method 1
the outer shell is resiliently compressible along a compression axis in such a manner that at least one side portion of the outer shell resiliently flexes along an expansion axis to transition the cooperating catch arrangement from the locked state to the unlocked state
Data Source
AI summary
A container of opening a container is provided. The container includes an outer shell slidably carrying a dispensing cartridge between open and closed states. A cooperating catch arrangement is operably interposed between the outer shell and the dispensing cartridge. The cooperating catch arrangement has a locked state that fixes the dispensing cartridge in the closed state relative to the outer shell and an unlocked state in which the dispensing cartridge is permitted to slide relative to the outer shell from the closed state to the open state. The cooperating catch arrangement is operable to be transitioned from the locked state to the unlocked state by resiliently reducing a width of the outer shell along a compression axis which resiliently expands a thickness of the outer shell along an expansion axis to disengage cooperating catch arrangement. A method of opening includes compressing the outer shell to disengage the cooperating catch arrangement.