Hospital Gown Dispenser with Side Access Opening
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Solution Overview
Problem
In medical settings, there is a need for a quick and practical solution to don hospital gowns efficiently, especially in sanitary areas where time and contamination prevention are critical.
Innovation Solution
A gown dispenser system comprising a stack of folded gowns with a pull tab on each, housed in an enclosure with a perforated opening, allowing users to grasp and pull gowns one-at-a-time, facilitating easy donning while maintaining sanitation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If gowns are stored in a stack without individual access, then storage space is efficiently utilized, but retrieval time increases and contamination risk rises
Solution Approach 1:
The gown stack is segmented into individually accessible units through the side opening, allowing each gown to be retrieved separately without disturbing the entire stack. This segmentation enables quick access to any gown in the stack while maintaining compact storage.
Solution Approach 2:
The essential access function is extracted from the traditional front-opening dispenser design and relocated to a side opening. This extraction allows gowns to be pulled from the side of the stack, eliminating the need to remove outer gowns first and significantly reducing retrieval time.
2Ease of operation
If gowns are accessible from the front of the enclosure, then ease of access is improved, but contamination risk increases due to handling multiple gowns
Solution Approach 1:
The access point is extracted from the front of the enclosure to the side, allowing direct access to the desired gown without requiring the user to handle or expose multiple gowns. This side access extraction maintains ease of operation while minimizing contamination risk.
Solution Approach 2:
The dispenser design incorporates a perforated cardboard barrier that is easily replaceable. This disposable-like component can be quickly changed to maintain sanitation without complicating the overall dispenser structure, balancing ease of operation with contamination prevention.
3Productivity
If the enclosure is made fully open for easy access, then retrieval speed increases, but sanitation protection decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The enclosure is segmented with a side opening rather than being fully open, allowing rapid access to individual gowns while the rest of the stack remains protected. This segmented approach maintains both sanitation protection and dispensing speed.
Solution Approach 2:
The perforated cardboard barrier serves as an intermediary element between the open side opening and the gown stack. It allows for easy gown retrieval while maintaining sanitation protection, and can be quickly replaced when needed without affecting the overall dispensing speed.
Data Source
AI summary
A gown dispenser system has a plurality of gowns, each having a back region, the gowns folded and stacked back region facing up, such that, pulling on the back region of a gown on top of the stack removes that gown from the stack and exposes the back region of the next gown in the stack, an enclosure containing the stack of gowns, the enclosure having an opening exposing the back region of the gown at the top of the stack, enabling a user to grasp the exposed back region and pull the topmost gown from the enclosure, exposing the next gown in the stack. Gowns are drawn from the enclosure one-at-a-time, at need.