Dispensing Pack Segmented Air and Medium Chambers
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Solution Overview
Problem
Standard dispenser packs face difficulties in preventing highly viscous media, such as creams, from contacting air, leading to contamination and loss of function, especially when the pack is upside down.
Innovation Solution
A dispenser pack design featuring a metering pump with a sealed container, a sealing cap, and a cylindrical wall with an axial aperture, including a retainer and annular seal to prevent air contact, and a flexible bag or drag-flow piston for maintaining airtight dispensing in any position.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the container is ventilated by the pump, then the pump can operate, but the medium comes into contact with air and becomes contaminated
Solution Approach 1:
The container is divided into two separate chambers: an upper air chamber and a lower medium chamber, separated by a horizontal partition. The pump operates in the air chamber while the medium remains isolated in the lower chamber, preventing contamination while maintaining pump functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
A flexible diaphragm acts as an intermediary between the air chamber and medium chamber. It transmits mechanical forces from the pump piston to the medium without allowing direct contact between air and medium, enabling pump operation while preventing contamination.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the dispenser pack is used upside down, then dispensing is possible in any orientation, but the medium contacts air and contamination occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The container is segmented into air and medium chambers with a horizontal partition, ensuring that regardless of the pack's orientation, the medium remains separated from air. This segmentation maintains contamination prevention while enabling versatile dispensing orientations.
Solution Approach 2:
A flexible diaphragm separates the chambers and adapts to different orientations. The diaphragm maintains the seal between air and medium chambers even when the pack is inverted, allowing dispensing in any orientation without air contact.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If a seal is placed between the container neck and closing cap, then air contact is prevented, but the seal pressure is insufficient for highly viscous media
Solution Approach 1:
The sealing mechanism is moved from a vertical seal at the container neck to a horizontal seal between the air and medium chambers. This dimensional change allows the seal to operate under the full weight of the medium column, generating sufficient sealing pressure for highly viscous media.
Solution Approach 2:
The sealing principle is copied from the container neck level to the chamber separation level. By placing the seal at the horizontal partition between chambers, the system utilizes the medium's own weight to create adequate seal pressure, overcoming the insufficiency of neck-level sealing.
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
Prevents contamination of the medium by air and reduces the need for preservatives, allowing for effective dispensing of viscous media in any orientation without air contact, enhancing the seal and operational efficiency.
Implementation Method 1
an annular seal (41) which can be sealed by the closing cap (22) against the outside of the pump housing (48)
Implementation Method 2
A helical compression spring (240) impinges on the pump piston (45) in the direction of its home position
Implementation Method 3
suction pressure exerted on the medium, the drag-flow piston (242), depending on the quantity of medium dispensed and the suction pressure
Data Source
AI summary
A dispenser pack for a free-flowing medium includes a metering pump, a container that is tightly connected to said metering pump and that can be ventilated by the pump, and a closing cap. The free-flowing medium within the container is enclosed by a bag made of a flexible material with an upper aperture rim of the bag being tightly connected in one part/piece to a wall of the container, and a space between the inside of the container wall and the outside of the bag being at atmospheric pressure.