Elastically Deformable Tab for Tactile Feedback in Rotating Caps
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Solution Overview
Problem
Packaging devices, such as mascara containers, experience wear and deformation of plastic materials due to repeated openings, leading to a diminished tactile sensation that confirms closure, and increasing the tooth size to compensate for wear results in increased force requirements, which is not satisfactory for consumers.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating an elastically deformable tab that bends parallel to the axis of rotation when the second part rotates relative to the first, providing a consistent tactile sensation without material deformation and maintaining ease of use, with the tab being reversible and damage-free, and optionally featuring a rotational limit stop for immobilization.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the size of the tooth is increased to compensate for wear, then the tactile sensation is maintained, but the force to be exerted when opening or closing the container increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the material parameter of the tab from rigid plastic to elastically deformable material, allowing it to bend and deform reversibly. This enables the tab to maintain tactile sensation through elastic deformation rather than relying on rigid tooth engagement, thereby reducing the force required for opening and closing while maintaining reliability of the tactile feedback.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs a flexible tab that can bend and deform elastically during the opening and closing operations. This flexible element provides tactile sensation through its deformation rather than through rigid mechanical engagement, solving the contradiction between maintaining tactile feedback and reducing operational force.
2Ease of manufacture
If plastic material is used for the tooth, then the device is easy to manufacture, but the material wears out and deforms following multiple successive openings
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the material parameter from rigid plastic to elastically deformable material with appropriate mechanical properties. This allows the tab to undergo reversible deformation during repeated operations without permanent damage, maintaining both ease of manufacture through molding and improved durability through elastic recovery.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent designs the tab with inherent elastic properties that cushion and absorb the stresses of repeated opening and closing operations. The elastic deformation acts as a buffer that protects the material from wear and permanent deformation, ensuring long-term reliability while maintaining manufacturing simplicity.
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
This solution maintains a substantially constant closing torque throughout the device's lifetime, ensuring a satisfactory tactile sensation without making it difficult to rotate parts, and can be applied to various packaging and application devices, including containers and push-button mechanisms.
Implementation Method 1
one of the parts comprising an elastically deformable tab and the other part comprising a relief, the tab and the relief being arranged to cooperate in such a way that the rotation of the second part relative to the first causes the tab to cross the relief in bending
Data Source
Figure 1~19
Figure 3~4
Figure 5~7
AI summary
The device (1) has a part i.e. closing cap (10), rotating with respect to another part i.e. container (2), around a longitudinal axis. The cap has a flexible tab (16) formed in a thickness of tubular skirt (14) of the cap. The container has a relief (8). The tab and the relief are arranged to cooperate with each other so that rotation of the cap relative to the container causes the tab to cross the relief by bending with a flexion component parallel to the axis. The tab crosses the relief to produce a tactile sensation to be felt by a user.