Drinking Straw Frustoconical Abutment to Prevent Package Separation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing drinking straws for pourable food products are prone to littering and their production is inefficient, as they require complex structures like thickening or palm-tree-like designs to prevent removal after use.
Innovation Solution
A drinking straw design featuring a tubular main body with a sleeve and a frustoconically shaped abutment portion that securely inserts into the package, preventing removal by abutting against the package's inner surface, allowing for easy and quick production.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a thickening or palm-tree like structure is used as an abutment portion to prevent straw removal, then the straw can be securely retained in the package, but the production process becomes more complex and slower
Solution Approach 1:
The invention changes the geometric parameters of the abutment portion by using a frustoconical shape with specific angle ranges (30-60 degrees for the cone angle, 5-15mm for the height). This parameter optimization allows the abutment to effectively retain the straw while being manufacturable through simple processes like injection molding, thus resolving the contradiction between retention reliability and production speed
Solution Approach 2:
The frustoconical abutment portion concentrates the retention function in a specific localized geometry rather than requiring complex overall structures. The specific conical shape with optimized dimensions provides effective straw retention at the abutment location while keeping the rest of the straw structure simple and easy to manufacture
2Productivity
If a frustoconically shaped abutment portion is used, then the production process is simplified and accelerated, but the ability to prevent straw removal must be maintained
Solution Approach 1:
The invention achieves both simplified production and effective retention by optimizing specific parameters of the frustoconical shape. The cone angle (30-60 degrees) and height (5-15mm) are carefully selected to provide sufficient friction and mechanical interlocking with the straw, ensuring retention while allowing simple manufacturing through standard injection molding processes
3Object-affected harmful factors
If complex structures like thickening or palm-tree like designs are used for the abutment portion, then straw littering is prevented, but manufacturing cost and complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The invention prevents littering by optimizing the parameters of a simple frustoconical abutment portion rather than using complex structures. The specific cone angle (30-60 degrees) and height (5-15mm) create sufficient mechanical retention to prevent straw removal, achieving littering prevention with minimal structural complexity and low manufacturing cost
Data Source
AI summary
There is described a drinking straw for a package being filled with a pourable food product. The drinking straw being configured to be at least partially inserted into a package main body of the package. The drinking straw comprises a tubular main body including a coupling portion extending along a central axis; and a sleeve fitted on and surrounding at least the coupling portion of the tubular main body. The sleeve comprises an abutment portion configured to abut onto an inner surface of the package main body after a partial insertion of the drinking straw into the package main body and during a movement of the drinking straw out of the package main body for impeding and/or hindering and/or blocking a removal and a separation of the drinking straw out of and from the package main body. The abutment portion has a frustoconical shape.