Drinking vessel having a drinking valve
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing drinking containers with drinking valves face manufacturing inefficiencies, sealing issues, and difficult cleaning, leading to potential leakage and contamination.
Innovation Solution
A drinking container design featuring a drinking valve with a small tube that closes under ambient pressure and opens with negative suction pressure, made from a flexible material with a membrane and flow opening, allowing for easy assembly, disassembly, and cleaning, and produced by injection molding.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If slit valves are used in conventional drinking containers, then liquid flow control is achieved, but manufacturing complexity and cost increase due to requiring separate slit incorporation processes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the valve body and the flow control mechanism into a single integrated component. The valve body itself forms the flow channel, eliminating the need for separate slits or flow openings that require additional manufacturing steps. This integration simplifies production while maintaining effective liquid flow control.
Solution Approach 2:
The valve body serves multiple functions simultaneously: it contains the sealing surface, forms the flow channel, provides structural support, and enables pressure-sensitive operation. This multi-functionality reduces the number of separate components needed, simplifying both manufacturing and assembly.
2Reliability
If slit valves with pressed-together edges are used, then liquid flow is controlled, but sealing reliability decreases and leakage occurs at low pressure differences
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a flexible membrane that forms the flow channel closure. This membrane can deform elastically in response to pressure changes, providing reliable sealing when closed and allowing controlled opening when pressure differential exceeds the threshold. The flexibility ensures consistent sealing without requiring high clamping forces.
Solution Approach 2:
The valve mechanism is designed to be dynamically responsive to pressure changes. The flexible membrane automatically adjusts its state between closed and open positions based on the pressure differential across the valve, providing adaptive sealing that maintains reliability across varying operating conditions.
3Ease of operation
If conventional drinking valves are used, then liquid flow control is provided, but cleaning difficulty increases due to poor accessibility and residual impurity accumulation
Solution Approach 1:
The valve is designed as a separable component that can be easily removed from the drinking container. This segmentation allows the valve to be completely detached for thorough cleaning, eliminating hard-to-reach areas where impurities could accumulate. The simple geometry of separate components facilitates complete cleaning.
Solution Approach 2:
The valve is extracted as a separate, removable component from the main container structure. This extraction enables independent cleaning of the valve without disassembling the entire container, improving accessibility and making it easier to remove residual impurities that could cause contamination.
4Productivity
If complex valve assembly processes are used, then sealing and flow control are achieved, but assembly time and manufacturing cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
By merging the valve body and flow control mechanism into a single integrated component, the number of assembly steps is dramatically reduced. The valve can be installed as one piece rather than requiring separate assembly of multiple components, thereby increasing productivity while maintaining effective sealing and flow control.
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 design ensures secure sealing, easy cleaning, and reliable operation, eliminating the need for complex slit valve production and assembly, while preventing contamination and leakage.
Implementation Method 1
the wall of the tube being designed as a flexible membrane at least in the area of the flow opening, and the tube when ambient pressure is present at the drinking opening the outer edge of the through-flow opening bears sealingly against the wall of the through-channel and the membrane bulges inward when a negative suction pressure is applied to the drinking opening
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
The invention relates to a drinking vessel comprising a drinking attachment (2) having a bottle wall (4) and a drinking element (25) which has a drinking opening above a passage channel (44) extending through the drinking element; a drinking valve arranged in the passage channel, wherein the drinking valve comprises a tube (27) which is open on the top and closed at the bottom and which has at least one flow-through opening (34) in a wall, which connects the inside of the tube to the outside of the tube, wherein the wall of the tube, at least in the area of the flow-through opening, is formed as a soft elastic diaphragm (32).