Disposable Cup Lid With Nose Clearance and Reclosable Drink Opening
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing disposable cup lids often interfere with drinking, fail to comfortably conform to the mouth, and increase the risk of spillage when adding condiments, leading to a suboptimal drinking experience and increased risk of beverage loss.
Innovation Solution
A disposable cup lid with a raised portion and angled design that includes a lip-engaging front wall, rear wall, and side walls, featuring a movable closure member and gripping mechanism, allowing for easy opening and reclosing while providing a concave clearance area for the nose and an enhanced drinking experience, and enabling the addition of condiments without removing the lid.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If a small openable portion is included in the lid to allow drinking without removing the lid, then beverage exposure to ambient conditions is reduced and spillage area is minimized, but the openable portion interferes with the upper lip or nose of the person drinking and does not comfortably conform to the mouth
Solution Approach 1:
The lid transitions from a flat two-dimensional structure to a three-dimensional structure by adding a raised portion that extends upward from the lid surface. This vertical dimension creates a clearance area that accommodates the user's nose and provides a more natural drinking angle, resolving the conflict between spillage prevention and drinking comfort.
Solution Approach 2:
The raised portion is localized to specific areas of the lid - the front wall is positioned to engage the lower lip while the top wall creates nose clearance. This localized structural modification allows the lid to provide both spillage protection and drinking comfort in different regions simultaneously.
2Ease of operation
If the openable portion extends upwardly above the central region of the cup lid to allow drinking, then a drinking path is provided, but it interferes with the upper lip or nose of a person consuming the beverage
Solution Approach 1:
By extending the front wall and top wall upwardly from the lid surface, the invention creates a three-dimensional drinking pathway that elevates the drinking opening above the lid plane. This vertical extension provides adequate clearance for the user's nose and upper lip while maintaining spillage protection.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If a small fixed opening is used to minimize spillage, then beverage spillage is reduced, but the lid must be removed from the cup to add condiments such as milk, cream and/or sugar
Solution Approach 1:
The lid incorporates a movable closure member that can be opened and closed dynamically. This allows the opening to transition between a small closed state for spillage prevention and an open state for condiment addition, eliminating the need to remove the entire lid while adding condiments.
Solution Approach 2:
The closure member serves multiple functions: it maintains a small opening to prevent spillage during normal use, can be opened to allow condiment addition, and can be reclosed to restore spillage protection. This multi-functionality resolves the contradiction between spillage prevention and condiment addition convenience.
4Object-affected harmful factors
If the lid is fully closed to prevent spillage, then substantial spilling is prevented, but people cannot drink from the cups without removing the lid entirely
Solution Approach 1:
The lid is segmented into a fixed body portion that provides spillage protection and a movable closure member that can be opened for drinking. This segmentation allows the lid to maintain overall structural integrity for spillage prevention while enabling convenient drinking access through the movable portion.
Solution Approach 2:
The closure member is designed to be movable between closed and open positions, allowing dynamic control of the drinking opening. When closed, it prevents spillage; when opened, it allows drinking without removing the entire lid, thus resolving the contradiction between spillage prevention and drinking convenience.
Data Source
AI summary
A disposable cup lid including a body and a mounting portion extending around the periphery of the body. The body defines a suitably shaped clearance area to accommodate a person's nose when drinking the contents of a cup having the lid positioned thereon. The body also defines an enhanced drinking area which is suitably configured to provide a person with a drinking experience more similar to the drinking experience of drinking from an uncovered cup or glass. In one embodiment, the body includes a raised portion which defines a lip engaging front wall and an enhanced drinking area. The enhanced drinking area includes a closure member having an upwardly extending gripping member and a drink-through opening initially covered by the closure member, wherein the drink-through opening is positioned substantially adjacent to the lip engaging front wall. The closure member is movable about a hinge from an initial closed position to an open position. The closure member of the top wall is also movable into a locking position wherein the gripping member frictionally engages the walls of a locking recess.