Food Container Organizer With Nested Pedestals and Lid Baskets

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing food container storage solutions are inefficient and disorganized, consuming excessive space and making it difficult to quickly locate specific sized containers and their matching lids among many others.

Innovation Solution

A compact food container organizer featuring stacks of disk-shaped pedestals with successively decreasing diameters attached to a flat support base, accompanied by lid baskets of varying sizes, allowing for orderly and compact storage of containers and lids by size, enabling convenient access.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of operation

If food containers and lids are stored randomly in a large amount of space, then more containers can be stored, but the storage space is wasted and it becomes difficult to locate specific sized containers and their matching lids quickly

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveease of locating specific sized containers and lidsVSAvoidstorage space consumption

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSArea of stationary object

Solution Approach 1:

The storage system is segmented into multiple pedestals of different sizes, each dedicated to storing containers of a specific size. Lids are similarly segmented into baskets corresponding to container sizes. This segmentation eliminates random storage and enables quick location of matching containers and lids by size.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

Different regions of the storage system are assigned different qualities - pedestals of varying dimensions are placed in specific locations to accommodate different container sizes, and lid baskets are positioned adjacent to their corresponding pedestals. This local differentiation optimizes both space utilization and retrieval efficiency.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

2Quantity of substance

If many food containers and lids are stored to have them available for use, then more items can be stored, but a large amount of space is consumed

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvenumber of food containers and lids storedVSAvoidstorage space

Core Design Contradiction:

Quantity of substanceVSArea of stationary object

Solution Approach 1:

Containers are stored inverted over the pedestals, with larger containers nesting around smaller pedestals and vice versa. This nesting arrangement allows maximum utilization of vertical space and accommodates a greater quantity of containers within a compact footprint.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #7Nested doll (Nesting)

Solution Approach 2:

The storage system transitions from horizontal spreading to vertical stacking by inverting containers over pedestals of varying heights and diameters. This dimensional change allows storing more containers in less floor space while maintaining easy access.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #17Another dimension (Dimensionality change)

Data Source

PatentUS9386885B1Food container organizer

Publication Date: 2016.07.12 JOHNSON DOUGLAS S

AI summary

A compact food container organizer by which variously sized food containers and their variously sized lids are stored and sorted in a neat and orderly manner. The organizer has stacks of pedestals lying side-by-side one another and attached to a flat support base. Each stack has one or more preferably disk-shaped pedestals lying one above the other over the base. The diameters of the successive ones of disk-shaped pedestals vary so that different food containers having different sizes can first be inverted and then positioned over the top of and around the correspondingly sized pedestals. A plurality of lid baskets having different sizes are attached to the support base to accommodate therewithin the variously sized lids that cover the food containers.