Reusable Feeding Pouch Structure for Easy Cleaning and Spill Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing reusable food pouches are cumbersome to use and difficult to sanitize, particularly due to their flexible design and the difficulty in cleaning the spout and valve components.
Innovation Solution
A reusable food pouch design that allows for complete disassembly and thorough cleaning, featuring a deformable receptacle, a removable one-way valve, and a rigid cover with compatible feeding tube connectors, enabling easy sanitation and adaptability to different food viscosities.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a flexible receptacle with integrated spout and lid is used, then the food pouch is portable and reusable, but it becomes cumbersome to use and difficult to sanitize
Solution Approach 1:
The food pouch is divided into separate components: a flexible receptacle, a rigid cover with spout, and a removable one-way valve. This segmentation allows each component to be easily detached and cleaned independently, solving the sanitation difficulty while maintaining reusability and portability of the overall system.
Solution Approach 2:
The one-way valve is extracted as a removable component from the integrated structure. This allows the valve to be taken out for separate cleaning or replacement, making the system easier to sanitize while preserving the flexible receptacle's portability and reusability.
2Reliability
If a one-way valve is integrated into the spout, then spill prevention is achieved for liquid foods, but the device becomes more complex and harder to clean
Solution Approach 1:
The one-way valve is designed as a simple, inexpensive component that can be easily replaced if needed. This reduces the penalty of having a valve component - if it becomes difficult to clean or malfunctions, it can be discarded and replaced rather than attempting to clean a complex integrated mechanism.
Solution Approach 2:
The one-way valve provides dynamic spill prevention - it automatically opens to allow food flow when the child sucks and closes to prevent spills when the pouch is set down. This dynamic functionality achieves reliable spill prevention without requiring a permanently complex structure, as the valve simply responds to pressure changes.
3Stability of the object's composition
If the spout is covered with a lid to stop fluid flow, then storage stability is improved, but the device becomes more complex and harder to sanitize
Solution Approach 1:
The lid function is merged with the rigid cover that already contains the spout. The cover serves both as a structural component holding the spout and as a lid that can be opened or closed to control fluid flow. This merging reduces the number of separate components while maintaining storage stability.
Data Source
AI summary
A container for feeding a patient includes a deformable receptacle having a cavity for holding a flowable food product and a rigid cover attachable to the upper end of the deformable receptacle. The rigid cover may have a male feeding tube connector that is uniquely connectable to a female feeding tube connector of a feeding tube or may have a female feeding tube connector that is uniquely connectable to a male feeding tube connector of a syringe. With the male and female feeding tube connectors connected, the deformable receptacle and the feeding tube or syringe are in fluid tight fluid communication to allow the flowable food product to be forced out of the opening of the deformable receptacle and into the feeding tube or syringe when the deformable receptacle is squeezed.