Foam-Forming Assembly with Simultaneous Valve Opening
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing foam-forming dispensing devices have suboptimal air and liquid mixing, leading to unsatisfactory foam quality and complex structures with many components, which complicate production and reduce foam quality due to bent passages slowing down air and liquid streams.
Innovation Solution
A foam-forming assembly with a housing having annular mouths for the liquid and air passages and a conical, flexible valve body that simultaneously opens these passages during dispensing, along with a constriction in the dispensing passage to enhance mixing and foam formation, utilizing an elastic material for the valve body to simplify the design and ensure proper sealing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If the air passage and liquid passage are arranged in a complex structure with multiple bends, then the device can accommodate more components, but the speed of air and liquid streams decreases leading to reduced foam quality
Solution Approach 1:
The housing is divided into multiple passages (air passage, liquid passage, dispensing passage) with clearly defined segments. Each passage has a specific function and the segments are arranged to minimize bends and maximize flow speed, directly resolving the contradiction between structural complexity and stream speed.
2Device complexity
If the valve body opens the air and liquid passages at different times, then the valve can be simpler in structure, but the mixing of air and liquid is not optimum reducing foam quality
Solution Approach 1:
The valve body is designed as a single integrated component that simultaneously controls both the air passage and liquid passage openings. This merging of control functions into one valve body ensures simultaneous opening of both passages, achieving optimal mixing without increasing structural complexity.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the container is made manually compressible to enable portable dispensing, then the device becomes more versatile, but the structure becomes more complex requiring additional restoring means
Solution Approach 1:
The container is designed with self-restoring capability through its own elastic properties. The container material inherently provides the restoring force needed to return to its original state after compression, eliminating the need for additional springs or mechanical restoring mechanisms, thus maintaining versatility while minimizing structural complexity.
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 configuration ensures simultaneous opening of air and liquid passages, improving foam formation by maintaining high-speed mixing and reducing the complexity of the dispensing device, resulting in better foam quality and simplified production.
Implementation Method 1
a valve body which, in a rest position, covers the mouth of the liquid passage and the mouth of the air passage in a sealing manner... and which, during dispensing, opens the mouth of the liquid passage and the mouth of the air passage
Implementation Method 2
a constriction in the dispensing passage to enhance mixing and foam formation, utilizing an elastic material for the valve body to simplify the design and ensure proper sealing
Implementation Method 3
allow mixing of air and liquid to take place in the dispensing passage... resulting in better foam quality
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a foam-forming assembly for forming a foam, comprising a housing having an air passage and a liquid passage which each end in a mouth and which are in communication with a dispensing passage which ends in a dispensing opening, and a valve body. The invention is characterized in that the mouth of the liquid passage is annular and the mouth of the air passage and an entry port of the dispensing passage are substantially provided on the circumference of an imaginary circle, in which between the annular mouth of the liquid passage and the mouth of the air passage and/or the entry port of the dispensing passage an annular sealing surface is provided, against which, in rest position, the valve body sealingly engages, and in which during dispensing the valve body becomes detached of the sealing surface such that the mouth of the air passage, the mouth of the liquid passage and the entry port of the dispensing passage substantially simultaneously come in fluid communication with each other.