Condiment Bottle with Movable Tab and Pressure Panels
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional condiment bottles lack stability in both upright and inverted positions, particularly when storing viscous materials, leading to potential leakage and inefficient dispensing, and they often do not fit well on typical refrigerator door shelving.
Innovation Solution
A plastic condiment bottle design featuring a cap with a movable trapezoidal tab, a valve element for controlled dispensing, and a unique shape with pressure panels and gripping surfaces that allows for secure handling and storage in both orientations, ensuring stability and preventing leakage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional condiment bottles are used, then they are simple in structure, but they lack stability in upright and inverted positions leading to potential leakage
Solution Approach 1:
The bottle incorporates an asymmetric base design with a larger footprint area that provides enhanced stability when the bottle is in an inverted position. The base geometry is specifically configured to prevent tipping and maintain equilibrium, directly addressing the stability issue without requiring complex internal mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The bottle employs a dynamic dispensing mechanism that responds to user activation. The dispensing orifice remains closed during storage and only opens when the user presses the activation panel, allowing the bottle to function stably in both upright and inverted positions while preventing leakage until dispensing is intended.
2Adaptability or versatility
If conventional condiment bottles are used, then manufacturing is simple, but they do not fit well on typical refrigerator door shelving
Solution Approach 1:
The bottle utilizes its inverted storage orientation as a different dimensional approach to fit refrigerator door shelving. By designing the bottle to store inverted with the cap facing downward, it optimizes vertical space utilization and accommodates typical refrigerator door shelf dimensions more effectively than conventional upright-only bottles.
3Ease of operation
If conventional condiment bottles are used, then the structure is simple, but viscous materials do not readily move for dispensing
Solution Approach 1:
The bottle incorporates a pre-configured dispensing system where the orifice is positioned and sized to facilitate gravity-assisted flow of viscous materials. The internal geometry and orifice placement are designed in advance to enable ready movement of viscous condiments during dispensing without requiring additional pumping or heating mechanisms.
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 bottle provides enhanced stability against tipping in both upright and inverted positions, prevents product leakage, and accommodates typical refrigerator door shelving, making it suitable for viscous condiments and improving storage efficiency.
Implementation Method 1
the central region is constructed to be more easily elastically deformed when subjected to squeezing pressure than the peripheral region
Implementation Method 2
the cap may also include a valve element covering the inner portion of the cap orifice to restrict product leakage from the bottle
Implementation Method 3
At the open position, the tab may be engaged by a detent arrangement that holds the tab below the plane of the cap
Data Source
AI summary
A bottle formed of a food-grade plastic material, such as clear polyethylene terephthalate, may include a frustoconical neck portion, a shoulder region, a base region, and a sidewall portion have opposed grip-enhancing surfaces, and elastically deformable pressure panels. A cap for the container may include a valve to control product leakage, and may be sized to allow inversion of the bottle. A generally trapezoidal tab of the cap may be moveable between a closed position covering a cap orifice and an open position outside the plane of the cap.