Container-Adapted Insect Trap With One-Way Barrier
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Solution Overview
Problem
Insects such as flies, beetles, bugs, bees, and ants are attracted to open containers of food and beverages, posing a nuisance both indoors and outdoors, and existing solutions do not effectively trap them once they enter.
Innovation Solution
A device is inserted into or attached to containers to convert them into insect traps, utilizing a unidirectional barrier of stiff bristles or filaments or a flexible cone/tube structure that allows insects to enter but prevents them from exiting, ensuring one-way entry into the container.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If a conventional opening is used on containers, then insects can easily enter the container to be attracted by food and beverages, but insects cannot be trapped once they enter
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the inversion principle by creating a barrier that allows insects to enter the container but prevents them from exiting. The stiff bristles or filaments are arranged to flex inward allowing entry while blocking outward movement, effectively inverting the normal bidirectional opening into a unidirectional trap mechanism.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses flexible materials for the barrier structure consisting of stiff bristles or filaments that can bend and flex. This flexibility allows the barrier to yield when insects push through to enter the container, yet maintains enough rigidity to prevent insects from pushing back out, creating an effective one-way trapping mechanism.
2Reliability
If a barrier is added to prevent insect exit, then insects can be trapped, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The barrier is segmented into multiple stiff bristles or filaments rather than a single solid wall. This segmentation allows each element to independently flex and yield to insects entering the container while collectively forming an effective barrier to exit, reducing the overall complexity compared to a rigid solid barrier.
Solution Approach 2:
The barrier transitions from a static structure to a dynamic one where the stiff bristles or filaments can flex and move. This dynamic behavior allows the barrier to adapt to insect movement - yielding during entry and blocking during exit attempts - achieving effective trapping with simpler structural requirements than a fixed rigid barrier.
3Ease of operation
If stiff bristles or filaments are used as a unidirectional barrier, then insects can enter but not exit, but the manufacturing precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the physical parameters of the barrier elements by using stiff bristles or filaments with specific flexibility characteristics. This allows the barrier to function effectively through material property selection rather than precise geometric arrangement, reducing manufacturing precision requirements while maintaining unidirectional barrier functionality.
Data Source
AI summary
A device for converting a container into an insect trap. A device opening is configured to allow an insect to enter an interior cavity of the container and configured to prevent the insect from exiting the interior cavity of the container using a unidirectional barrier.