Flat Cuboid Irritant Body with Recessed Actuator

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Solution Overview

Problem

Conventional irritant bodies, often designed as hand grenades, are recognizable before activation, allowing for potential countermeasures and limiting their effectiveness due to their standard shape and appearance.

Innovation Solution

A flat, cuboid irritant body with side blow-out openings and a hidden actuating element, resembling a cell phone in appearance, which can produce acoustic and optical effects through burning or decomposition, and features a compact design with a recessed actuating element and delay sets for controlled effect deployment.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of information

If the irritant device is designed as a hand grenade shape, then it is easily recognizable as an irritant device, but this allows for detection and countermeasures before activation

Engineering Contradiction:
ImproverecognizabilityVSAvoideffectiveness
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies visual disguise by changing the external appearance from the conventional grenade shape to a flat cuboid shape that resembles everyday objects like smartphones or tablets. This visual transformation prevents immediate recognition as an irritant device, allowing it to be stored and handled without suspicion while maintaining its functional effectiveness when activated

Inventive Principle:
Principle #32Color changes

2Ease of operation

If the actuating element is made prominent for easy operation, then the device is easy to operate, but the external dimensions increase and the flat design is compromised

Engineering Contradiction:
ImproveoperabilityVSAvoidflat design
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of operationVSShape

Solution Approach 1:

The actuating element is recessed into the housing structure, nesting it within the flat cuboid body rather than protruding outward. This allows the actuating element to remain accessible and operable while maintaining the compact flat external dimensions and cuboid appearance, resolving the conflict between operability and design aesthetics

Inventive Principle:
Principle #7Nested doll (Nesting)

3Reliability

If multiple effect packs are used to enhance effectiveness, then the acoustic and optical effects are improved, but the device complexity and size increase

Engineering Contradiction:
ImproveeffectivenessVSAvoidstructure complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The irritant device is segmented into multiple independent effect packs, each containing specific acoustic and/or optical effect charges. These segmented effect packs can be independently configured and activated, allowing enhanced effectiveness through combination while maintaining manageable complexity through modular organization within the housing structure

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

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 makes the irritant body unrecognizable until activated, enhancing handling and storage ease while maintaining the effectiveness of producing visual and auditory effects, and allowing for controlled and delayed effect deployment.

Implementation Method 1

The effect composition is ignited by the delay charge, which then ignites to the effect composition and thus detonates the effect composition. This combustion or disintegration creates the aforementioned optical and acoustic effects

Methodology Applied
Scientific EffectCombustion: Combustion

Implementation Method 2

Alternatively, a disintegrator charge can be ignited, which causes the effect composition to disintegrate. This combustion or disintegration creates the aforementioned optical and acoustic effects

Methodology Applied
Scientific EffectDisintegration: Decomposition (biological)

Implementation Method 3

The igniter head ensures that a primer cap is struck or activated, thus allowing the effect composition to be burned

Methodology Applied
Scientific EffectFriction heating: Friction

Implementation Method 4

The primer cap can also cause a delay charge to burn, which then ignites to the effect composition and thus detonates the effect composition

Methodology Applied
Scientific EffectCombustion: Combustion

Data Source

PatentEP3724595B1Irritation member
Publication Date: 2024.02.14 RHEINMETALL WAFFE MUNITION GMBH
  • EP3724595B1 patent drawingFigure 1~2

AI summary

The invention relates to an irritation member having a housing (1), wherein the housing (1) has a front side and a rear side, as well as lateral surfaces connecting the front side and the rear side. The front side and rear side are larger than the lateral surfaces, thereby producing a parallelepipedal housing. The irritation member has blow-out openings (2) on the lateral surfaces and an actuation element that is provided in a recess of the housing (1). In the event of non-actuation, the actuation element is thereby received in the recess of the housing (1) and thus does not increase the size of the housing. As a result, the irritation member does not look like a conventional irritation member.