Flexible Pet Toy Slit Dynamics for Easy Cleaning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing pet toys that hold food for animals are difficult to clean and refill, and either lead to food being left inside for a long time or eaten quickly due to poorly designed through holes, failing to maintain animal engagement effectively.
Innovation Solution
A pet toy with a flexible, axially flat body featuring a lateral band portion, first and second coverings, and a slit that expands easily with minimal force for easy food introduction, removal, and cleaning, while preventing animals from easily accessing the food.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Duration of action of moving object
If through holes are made relatively smaller to maintain animal engagement, then the animal plays with the toy longer, but the toy becomes difficult to clean and refill
Solution Approach 1:
The slit is designed to be dynamically changeable in size - small during normal play to maintain animal engagement, but capable of being opened wide when a user applies force to facilitate cleaning and refilling. This dynamic adjustment resolves the contradiction between maintaining small openings for engagement and enabling large openings for maintenance.
2Ease of operation
If through holes are made relatively larger to facilitate cleaning and refilling, then the toy is easier to maintain, but food pieces can escape and the animal eats quickly, reducing engagement time
Solution Approach 1:
The slit provides dynamic control over the opening size - remaining small during animal play to prevent food escape and maintain engagement, but opening wide when users apply force for cleaning and refilling operations.
3Ease of operation
If the slit is made larger to allow easy cleaning, then cleaning becomes simpler, but the animal can access and eat the food more quickly
Solution Approach 1:
The slit dynamically adjusts its size based on applied force - remaining small during normal conditions to slow food consumption and maintain animal engagement, but opening wide when users apply force to facilitate rapid cleaning.
4Duration of action of moving object
If the slit is made smaller to prevent food escape, then animal engagement is maintained longer, but cleaning and refilling becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The slit provides dynamic access control - small during animal play to maintain engagement and prevent food escape, but capable of being opened wide when users apply force to enable easy cleaning and refilling access.
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
Facilitates easy cleaning and refilling while maintaining animal engagement by allowing humans to expand the slit with minimal effort, inhibiting animals from easily accessing the food, thus prolonging playtime.
Implementation Method 1
the pet toy made from the flexible material tends to contract in the longitudinal direction of the slit with the force applied thereto, and thus to produce a force affecting in the width direction of the slit so as to expand the slit along the direction of the affecting force
Data Source
AI summary
An object of the present invention is to provide a pet toy designed compatibly both to allow cleaning inside the toy as well as introducing and removing the food into/from the pet toy to be performed by a user in a significantly easy manner and to make the animal to be continuously engaged by the toy for a long time.A pet toy 1 has a flexible and axially flat body formed with a cavity disposed inside thereof that can accommodate an amount of food for an animal. The body comprises: a lateral band portion 3 defining an outer perimeter of an axially central part of the body; a first and a second coverings 4 and 5, each extending in the axial direction from the lateral band portion; and a slit 2 formed in the lateral band portion 3 so as to communicate with the cavity.