Cup Nesting Sleeve Assembly for Low-Volume Beverage Waste
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing trash compactors for disposable cups are expensive, noisy, and cumbersome due to the heavy weight of compacted waste, necessitating a low-cost and efficient solution for reducing the volume occupied by disposable cups in waste containers.
Innovation Solution
A stackable sleeve system for disposable cups that nests cups within each other, allowing them to be deposited into a trash can while maintaining a compacted state, coupled with a trash can design featuring slots and channels for easy disposal and handling.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If trash compactors are used to crush disposable cups, then the volume occupied by cups is reduced, but the cost, noise, and weight of the system increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies nesting by placing one disposable cup inside another cup, creating a compact stacked arrangement. This nested configuration reduces the overall volume occupied by multiple cups from their individual full volumes to a compacted stack volume, achieving waste volume reduction without requiring an expensive compactor machine.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the waste management system into simple components: individual disposable cups that can be independently nested within each other. This segmentation allows the system to achieve compaction through simple manual stacking rather than requiring a complex mechanical compactor, thereby reducing system cost and complexity.
2Volume of moving object
If trash compactors are used to crush disposable cups, then the volume occupied by cups is reduced, but noise and weight increase
Solution Approach 1:
By nesting cups within each other, the system achieves volume reduction through simple arrangement rather than mechanical crushing. This eliminates the noise generated by compactor machinery and keeps the weight manageable, as the cups remain in their original lightweight disposable state rather than being compressed into heavy compacted waste.
3Ease of operation
If disposable cups are placed in trash containers, then disposal is simple, but the volume occupied by cups increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-arranging cups in a nested configuration before disposal. Users simply stack used cups nested within each other and place the compacted stack into the trash container, maintaining ease of disposal while achieving volume reduction through the pre-established nesting arrangement.
Solution Approach 2:
The nested cup arrangement allows multiple cups to occupy a fraction of the volume they would individually occupy. This nesting approach maintains simplicity in disposal operations while significantly reducing the volume required in trash containers, addressing both ease of operation and volume reduction requirements.
Data Source
AI summary
A beverage container disposal assembly for efficient disposal of used cups includes a plurality of cups. A sleeve has an open top end. The plurality of cups is stackable within the sleeve through the open top end. The plurality of cups is nested within each other when the plurality of cups is stacked within the sleeve. A trash can is coupled to sleeve wherein the sleeve deposits the plurality of cups within the trash can while the plurality of cups are nested within each other. The trash can includes a base wall and a peripheral wall that extends upwardly from the base wall to define a trash can interior.