Distensible Snack Bottle Cap for Single-Handed Dispensing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing snack bottles do not allow for single-handed dispensing of snacks, making it inconvenient to consume them while performing other tasks.
Innovation Solution
A snack bottle with a deformable container portion and a rubber-like dispensing cap featuring a slit opening that distends upon manual pressure, enabling snacks to be dispensed through a rounded or ovoid aperture, allowing for single-handed ingestion.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a traditional snack bottle with a fixed cap is used, then the bottle structure is simple and easy to manufacture, but it requires two hands to open and dispense snacks, making it inconvenient for single-handed operation
Solution Approach 1:
The dispensing cap transitions from a static, fixed structure to a dynamic, deformable structure that changes shape in response to applied pressure. The cap includes a deformable body with a closure member that can move between closed and open positions, allowing the user to control dispensing by squeezing the bottle with one hand.
Solution Approach 2:
The physical state of the dispensing cap changes from rigid to flexible/deformable under pressure. The deformable body material allows the cap to undergo shape changes when force is applied, transforming the closure from a sealed state to an open state for snack dispensing, and back to sealed when pressure is released.
2Ease of operation
If the dispensing cap is made rigid for structural stability, then the cap maintains its shape and sealing, but it cannot be deformed to open the slit opening for dispensing
Solution Approach 1:
The dispensing cap is constructed from a deformable body material that exhibits flexibility under applied pressure. This flexible material allows the cap walls to deform and the slit opening to distend when the user squeezes the bottle, while still maintaining sufficient structural integrity to seal when at rest and to define the ovoid aperture shape during dispensing.
3Ease of operation
If the slit opening remains open for easy access, then snacks are easily dispensable, but the bottle cannot maintain sealing to prevent contamination when not in use
Solution Approach 1:
The closure member within the deformable cap dynamically transitions between a closed position that seals the slit opening and an open position that allows snack dispensing. When the user releases pressure on the bottle, the elastic recovery of the deformable body automatically returns the closure member to the sealed position, ensuring contamination prevention without requiring manual intervention.
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
Enables convenient, single-handed dispensing of snacks, allowing users to consume them while engaging in activities like driving by applying pressure to the bottle, which distends the slit opening and restores it to a sealed position when pressure is released.
Implementation Method 1
a rubberlike dispensing cap... When the container portion is deformed by application of manual pressure thereto, said pressure applied across a transverse axis thereof, the locking rim communicates such deformation to the dispensing cap, and a slit opening, disposed at a top end of the dispensing cap, is thereby distended into a rounded, or ovoid, open position
Data Source
AI summary
A snack bottle with distensible dispensing cap that includes a deformable container portion attachable to a rubberlike dispensing cap, said dispensing cap having a slit opening rendered linearly therein, wherein deformation of the container portion by application of manual pressure thereto distends the slit opening in the dispensing cap, and snacks additional to the container portion are transmissible through the dispensing cap when the slit opening is distended, whereby snacks storable within the container portion are dispensable singlehandedly from said container portion.