Deformable Cap Wall for Fluid Tank Sealing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing fluid product distribution systems face challenges in achieving reliable sealing against air and contaminants, particularly due to imperfect geometries at the interface, leading to issues like drying, oxidation, and contamination.
Innovation Solution
A distribution system comprising a base and cap with a deformable wall and sleeve around a nozzle, where the cap's skirt and sleeve form a reversible interface that opens under product pressure, ensuring sealed contact and effective sealing through snap-fitting and annular sealing joints, preventing contamination and oxidation between uses.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a resilient member is interposed between cap and membrane to assist return to sealed state, then sealing reliability is improved, but device complexity increases due to additional components and assembly requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the sealing function and the return force function into a single integrated cap structure. The cap's wall is made elastically deformable and directly contacts the membrane, eliminating the need for separate resilient members. This integration maintains sealing reliability while reducing component count and assembly complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The cap structure serves multiple functions simultaneously: it provides the sealed contact interface with the membrane, supplies the elastic return force through its deformable wall, and maintains the structural framework for the distribution system. This multi-functionality resolves the contradiction by consolidating what would otherwise require separate components.
2Ease of operation
If closure is produced at the interface between two geometries, then distribution function is achieved, but sealing reliability deteriorates due to imperfect geometries
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the physical parameter of the cap wall from rigid to elastically deformable. This allows the interface geometry to dynamically adapt: it maintains imperfect geometry for distribution function while the elastic deformation provides continuous sealing pressure, compensating for geometric imperfections and ensuring reliable sealing.
3Productivity
If membrane is reversibly deformable to break sealed contact for distribution, then product distribution is enabled, but sealing reliability deteriorates due to contact breaking
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the cap wall dynamically deformable rather than static. The cap wall elastically deforms in coordination with the membrane deformation, maintaining sealed contact during distribution and automatically returning to closed state when deformation ceases. This dynamic behavior enables both productivity and sealing reliability.
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 system provides enhanced sealing and protection against air and contaminants, ensuring the product's integrity by maintaining a sealed state during non-use and allowing controlled distribution through a deformable membrane, effectively preventing drying, oxidation, and contamination.
Implementation Method 1
the wall being reversibly deformable by the pressure of the product in the distribution chamber from a stable closed state
Implementation Method 2
the wall being reversibly deformable... from a stable closed state of the interface to a deformed opening state
Implementation Method 3
the sleeve is arranged in sealed contact around the nozzle... to prevent in particular deterioration of the product stored in the vicinity of the hole via contact with the outside air
Data Source
AI summary
A system for distributing a fluid product which is packaged in a tank, the system comprises a base and a cap which are intended to be mounted on the tank together forming a distribution chamber which has a supply passage for packaged product, the cap having a wall which is provided with a skirt for assembly on the tank and a sleeve which is arranged around a nozzle of the base forming between the sleeve and the nozzle a distribution interface which opens in a distribution hole formed in the wall, the wall being reversibly deformable by the pressure of the product in the distribution chamber from a stable closed state of the interface in which the sleeve is arranged in sealed contact around the nozzle towards a deformed opening state of the interface in which the sealed contact is broken in order to allow the distribution of the product contained in the distribution chamber through the distribution hole.