Flexible Container for Concealed Cisterns
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional containers for holding cleaning agents and fragrances in concealed cisterns are difficult to install and disassemble, especially in modern, flush-mounted designs with limited accessibility and narrow internal dimensions, due to their complex design and size constraints.
Innovation Solution
A container with spring-elastic or flexible regions that can compress and change shape, allowing it to be inserted and rotated into concealed cisterns with small horizontal depths, featuring recessed side surfaces and a basket-like structure to hold cleaning agents or fragrances, which can be easily filled and maintained.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a conventional rigid container is used for holding cleaning agents in concealed cisterns, then the container structure is simple and manufacturing is easy, but the container cannot be easily inserted and rotated into cisterns with limited accessibility and narrow internal dimensions
Solution Approach 1:
The container incorporates a flexible area that allows the container to dynamically change its shape during installation. The flexible area enables the container to bend and deform, facilitating insertion through narrow access openings and rotation into the vertical position within the concealed cistern, then return to its original shape once positioned.
Solution Approach 2:
The container includes a flexible area made of elastomeric material that allows the container walls to bend and deform. This flexible portion enables the container to adapt its shape during installation, allowing it to pass through the access opening and rotate into place, while the remaining rigid portions maintain structural integrity.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the container is designed with fixed rigid structure, then manufacturing precision is easier to achieve, but the container cannot adapt to compact design constraints of modern concealed cisterns
Solution Approach 1:
The container transitions from a static rigid structure to a dynamic structure with a flexible area that can change shape. This allows the container to adapt its dimensions and shape during installation to fit various cistern configurations, then maintain its functional shape once positioned, balancing adaptability with manufacturing feasibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The container utilizes changes in physical parameters, specifically the flexibility and elasticity of the elastomeric material in the flexible area. This allows the container to change its shape and volume during installation, adapting to different spatial constraints while maintaining structural integrity through the elastic recovery property of the material.
3Volume of moving object
If the container maintains its full size during insertion, then the container capacity is maximized, but the container cannot be inserted through access openings in shallow concealed cisterns
Solution Approach 1:
The container employs a flexible area that allows temporary deformation during the insertion process. The container can be compressed and bent to reduce its effective insertion dimension, passed through the access opening, then returns to its full capacity shape once positioned within the cistern, maximizing both insertability and storage volume.
Solution Approach 2:
The flexible area allows the container to effectively nest or compress itself during insertion, similar to how a collapsible structure can be reduced in size for passage through a narrow opening while maintaining its full size and capacity when deployed in its intended location.
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
Enables simple assembly and disassembly, reduces manufacturing complexity, and allows for effective release of cleaning agents or fragrances into flushing water, while accommodating the compact design of modern concealed cisterns.
Implementation Method 1
a spring-elastic and/or flexible area (7) that connects a first section (8) comprising a bottom of the container with a second section (10) defining an opening of the container, wherein by means of an external force acting on the container it can be transferred from a first state to a second state, and wherein in the second state the container is compressed by means of the spring-elastic and/or flexible area
Data Source
Figure 1a~1b
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
The invention relates to a container (1) for receiving a cleaning agent and/or a fragrance for a concealed cistern with an inspection opening, to which a mounting frame defining an opening is assigned, wherein the container (1) can be used in the interior of the concealed cistern.In order to enable the easy installation and removal of such a container in a concealed cistern, in particular a shallow concealed cistern with a small horizontal internal depth, the invention provides that the container (1) has a spring-elastic and/or flexible section (7) which connects a first section (8) comprising a bottom (9) of the container (1) with a second section (10) defining an opening (11) of the container (1), wherein by means of an external force acting on the container (1) it can be moved from a first state to a second state, wherein in the second state the container (1) is compressed by means of the spring-elastic and/or flexible section (7) in such a way that at least one outer dimension of the container (1) is shortened compared to the first state.