Flip-up potty seat
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Solution Overview
Problem
Potty training young children on adult-sized toilets is unpredictable, time-consuming, and often causes fear and apprehension, exacerbated by the need for constant supervision and the use of potty chairs that require tedious cleaning.
Innovation Solution
A flip-up potty seat that fits between the toilet seat and lid, integrally molded from flexible materials, allowing quick conversion between potty-training and adult-use positions using a living hinge and adhesive or suction cups for attachment, with stabilizer tabs for stability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a potty chair is used for training young children, then the child can be trained to use the toilet, but the device requires tedious cleaning and occupies additional space
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the potty training seat with the existing adult toilet seat, creating a unified structure where the child seat is integrated into the adult toilet. This merging eliminates the need for separate potty chairs that require cleaning, as the integrated design allows direct flushing of waste into the toilet bowl.
Solution Approach 2:
The adult toilet seat is designed to serve multiple functions: it can accommodate both adult users and young children for potty training. The flip-up mechanism allows the same toilet structure to adapt to different user sizes and needs, eliminating the requirement for dedicated child-sized potty chairs.
2Device complexity
If a regular adult-sized toilet seat is used directly, then no additional device is needed, but young children experience fear and apprehension due to the size and lack of support
Solution Approach 1:
The patent adds localized support structures (side walls and backrest) to specific areas of the toilet seat where children need protection and comfort. These localized additions provide psychological and physical support without altering the overall simplicity of the adult toilet structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The flip-up mechanism allows the toilet seat to dynamically adjust between adult and child configurations. The side walls can be flipped up to enclose the child's area, creating a sense of security, and flipped down for adult use, maintaining structural simplicity when not in use.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If a potty training seat with side walls is added to an adult toilet, then child safety and comfort are improved, but the device becomes more complex and harder to clean
Solution Approach 1:
The side walls are designed as movable flip-up components rather than fixed structures. This dynamic design allows the walls to be flipped up during potty training to provide safety and flipped down for cleaning or adult use, reducing the perceived complexity while maintaining safety benefits.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses thin, flexible materials for the side walls and backrest that can easily be positioned and cleaned. These thin film structures provide the necessary safety enclosure without creating complex rigid frameworks that would be difficult to maintain.
4Strength
If the potty seat is made thick for structural integrity, then durability is improved, but it cannot fit into the space between the toilet seat and lid for storage
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs thin, flexible shell structures that provide sufficient structural integrity for potty training while maintaining a compact profile. The flexibility of the thin film material compensates for the reduced thickness, allowing the seat to fit within the limited space between the toilet seat and lid.
Solution Approach 2:
The use of composite materials provides enhanced strength-to-thickness ratio, allowing the potty seat to maintain structural integrity despite its thin profile. The composite construction enables the seat to be both strong enough for durability and thin enough for compact storage.
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 rapid and sanitary conversion of a regular toilet to a potty-training mode, reducing discomfort and fear for children while eliminating the need for potty chairs, and facilitating easy cleaning.
Implementation Method 1
The flip-up potty seat can include a mount that can attach to an underside of the (adult size) toilet lid with adhesive strips
Implementation Method 2
The flip-up potty seat can include a mount that can attach to an underside of the (adult size) toilet lid with adhesive strips, suction cups
Data Source
AI summary
A flip-up potty seat for a standard toilet includes a mount secured to the underside of the toilet lid by a removable attachment such as an adhesive pad, hook-and-loop fastener with adhesive, one or more suction cups, a magnet with adhesive, a fastener, or a clamp. A toilet-seat ring is joined to the mount by a living hinge and is positionable on the adult seat for potty-training use. Two stabilizer tabs on the ring engage the adult seat's inner opening to resist lateral movement. One or more hinged tabs on the mount are movable from flush to about-perpendicular and frictionally engage complementary recesses on the ring to retain the ring when flipped up. The assembly is thin enough to store between the lid and the seat with the lid closed, enabling rapid conversion between potty-training and adult use.