Flow-through Cosmetic Applicator with Pre-filled Stem and Cap
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Solution Overview
Problem
Flow-through devices, such as cosmetic applicators, often dehydrate when unused for extended periods, requiring multiple steps to fill both the cap and internal features to prevent dehydration, which can lead to inefficiencies and user inconvenience.
Innovation Solution
A flow-through device design featuring a body with a stem, cap, and piston, where the cap has an interior volume for solution filling, and the stem includes a hollow channel for solution flow, allowing the reservoir to be overfilled to fill the cap, applicator, and stem, ensuring the applicator remains moist and ready for use upon opening.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the flow-through device is assembled with solution filled in the interior volumes of the features through which solution moves, then the applicator remains moist and prevents dehydration, but the device requires two steps to fill both the cap and the internal features
Solution Approach 1:
The device is pre-filled with solution during manufacturing before reaching the consumer. The reservoir, stem hollow channel, and cap interior volume are all filled with solution in advance, so when the consumer opens the device, the applicator is already moist and ready for use without requiring any filling steps.
Solution Approach 2:
The device is designed to be self-sufficient upon opening. The pre-filled solution automatically positions itself through the hollow channel to the applicator, eliminating the need for consumer intervention to fill or activate the device.
2Ease of operation
If the reservoir is overfilled to fill the stem hollow channel volume, applicator interior volume, and cap interior volume, then the applicator is ready for immediate use, but the device structure becomes more complex to accommodate the overfill mechanism
Solution Approach 1:
The hollow channel within the stem is nested inside the body structure, and the cap contains the applicator within its interior volume. The solution flows through these nested hollow spaces in sequence, from the reservoir through the stem channel to the applicator, utilizing the existing structural cavities without adding external complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The solution filling process utilizes the vertical dimension and pressure differential created by overfilling. The excess solution is forced upward and outward into the cap and applicator through pressure, using gravitational and pressure-driven flow rather than mechanical pumping mechanisms.
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
This design ensures the applicator remains moist and ready for use without requiring immediate rotation of the neck, preventing bacterial growth and drying, and allowing for the use of more volatile solvents, enhancing user convenience and product usability.
Implementation Method 1
the piston forms a seal with a sidewall of the reservoir
Implementation Method 2
the piston is configured to displace the solution filled in the reservoir into the hollow channel volume of the stem
Implementation Method 3
the neck is configured to rotate the attached stem, the rotation causing a movement of the piston along the length direction of the stem
Implementation Method 4
the applicator includes an interior applicator volume and at least one flow hole configured to excrete the solution pushed through the stem by the piston
Implementation Method 5
configured to spread the solution excreted through the at least one flow hole onto a surface
Data Source
AI summary
A flow-through device includes a body, including a stem; a cap; a neck; a piston; and an applicator; and a bottle including a reservoir configured to hold a solution, wherein the piston is attached to the stem at a predetermined distance along a length of the stem away from a bottom face of the reservoir when the stem is inserted into the reservoir, forms a seal with a sidewall of the reservoir, and is configured to displace the solution filled in the reservoir into a hollow channel volume of the stem, an interior applicator volume of the applicator, and an interior cap volume of the cap, and the reservoir is filled with an overfilled volume of the solution filling into the hollow channel volume of the stem, the interior applicator volume of the applicator, and the interior cap volume of the cap.