Drip Tray with Segmented Channels for Even Plant Irrigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing irrigation systems for plants fail to ensure even distribution of nutrients and water, leading to salt buildup in the rooting medium, which can cause nutrient lockout and damage to plants, and often have unreliable drainage issues.
Innovation Solution
An automated drip watering system with a drip tray that distributes water or nutrient solution evenly across the rooting medium, featuring channels with inlets and outlets to flush out old salts and a recirculating or run-to-waste design that includes a drain channel for complete water removal, preventing bacterial growth and ensuring balanced nutrient delivery.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If water is directed to only one or two small areas of the rooting medium surface, then the irrigation system is simple to operate, but salt buildup occurs on untouched areas leading to nutrient lockout
Solution Approach 1:
The irrigation system divides the water delivery into multiple segments by using a distribution manifold with multiple outlets positioned across the rooting medium surface. This segmentation ensures that water is delivered to multiple areas simultaneously, preventing salt buildup in any single location while maintaining simple operation through automated controlled delivery.
2Device complexity
If drainage channels have small diameters, then the device structure is compact, but debris blocks or interferes with drainage
Solution Approach 1:
The drainage function is extracted from the small-diameter channels by providing a separate, dedicated drainage channel with larger diameter. This extracted drainage channel is positioned to receive water from the distribution manifold, allowing it to handle debris flow without blocking the main irrigation channels while keeping the overall device structure compact through integrated manifold design.
Solution Approach 2:
The distribution manifold acts as an intermediary between the water source and the rooting medium, incorporating both irrigation outlets and drainage channels. This intermediary structure coordinates water delivery and drainage separately, preventing debris from blocking irrigation channels while maintaining compact overall device structure through unified manifold design.
3Productivity
If a large amount of water flows through the rooting medium quickly for flushing, then salt removal is effective, but water consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables continuous flushing action by maintaining water flow through the rooting medium over an extended period through the distribution manifold's multiple outlets. This continuous distributed flow is more effective at removing salts than intermittent high-volume flushing, as it prevents salt crystallization and maintains consistent leaching throughout the medium, thereby reducing total water consumption while improving flushing productivity.
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 effectively flushes out old nutrients, prevents salt buildup, ensures even water distribution, and promotes healthy root growth by maintaining a balanced nutrient supply, while also preventing algae formation and ensuring complete drainage.
Implementation Method 1
a plurality of channels (7) is defined through the base (3) from the first surface (4) to the second surface (5), each of the channels configured to have an inlet (8) and an outlet (9)
Implementation Method 2
As the level of the water or nutrient solution rises above the first surface it reaches the level of the lips of the inlets and falls over the lips into the channels
Implementation Method 3
This involves allowing a relatively large amount of water to flow freely through the rooting medium in a small amount of time to dissolve the fertilizer salt, leaching it away as water travels through and out of the medium
Implementation Method 4
after flushing, it is important to allow as much of the water to drain from the rooting medium as possible
Data Source
AI summary
A kit for use in watering a plant includes a drip tray comprising a base having a length being a distance between a first set of two parallel planes and a width being a distance between a second set of two parallel planes defined at sides of the base, each plane of the second set being substantially perpendicular to the planes of the first set, the base having a height being a distance between a first surface and a second surface of the base, wherein a wall upstands from the first surface around its edge at each side of the base and a plurality of channels is defined through the base from the first surface to the second surface, each of the channels configured to have an inlet and an outlet, wherein each inlet has a lip projecting from the first surface.