Gummy Configuration for Accurate Supplement Dosing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing edible confectionaries, such as gummies, struggle to break apart into sections with substantially equal volumes, making it difficult to deliver consistent dosages of nutritional supplements or medications, especially when they are elastic and deform during separation.
Innovation Solution
A gummy composition that solidifies in a mold with recesses on the top surface communicating with vertical gaps in the sidewall and secondary openings, allowing for predictable and equal separation of sections, ensuring each section has a therapeutically effective amount of the supplement or medication.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a single soft confectionary body is formed to break apart into sections, then the confectionary can be divided for easier consumption, but the sections will have unequal volumes and inconsistent dosages of supplements or medications
Solution Approach 1:
The gummy body is segmented into multiple sections during the molding process by forming recesses in the top surface that extend partially through the body. These recesses create predetermined separation planes that guide clean breaks between sections, ensuring each section has substantially equal volume and consistent dosage of embedded supplements or medications.
Solution Approach 2:
The separation structure is prepared in advance during the molding process rather than requiring post-manufacturing intervention. Recesses are formed in the gummy material while it is still pliable, creating built-in separation guides that ensure equal-volume sections when the gummy is later broken apart by the consumer.
2Ease of operation
If gummy confectionaries are made elastic and pliable for easy consumption, then they are easier to chew and ingest, but they deform and stretch during separation making equal sectioning difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The gummy body incorporates recesses that create predetermined separation planes, guiding clean breaks between sections. These recesses maintain their structural definition even as the gummy material deforms during separation, ensuring each section achieves substantially equal volume despite the elastic nature of the material.
3Manufacturing precision
If individual un-separable gummy bodies are provided to ensure accurate dosage, then each gummy delivers consistent supplement or medication amounts, but the product complexity and manufacturing cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of manufacturing multiple individual gummies, a single gummy body is molded with internal recesses that create predetermined separation planes. This allows one molded piece to function as multiple dosed units, reducing manufacturing complexity while maintaining accurate dosage through the embedded supplement or medication distribution throughout the gummy material.
Solution Approach 2:
The single gummy body structure serves multiple functions: it contains the embedded supplement or medication, provides structural integrity for handling, and incorporates built-in separation guides that enable clean division into equal-volume sections. This multi-functional design eliminates the need for separate packaging or dosing 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
Enables accurate and consistent dosing of nutritional supplements or medications by ensuring each separated section has a substantially equal volume of gummy composite material, addressing the issue of irregular sectioning in traditional gummies.
Implementation Method 1
When placed in the mold in liquid form, the gummy composite material will cool and harden to form a gummy body in the shape of the mold
Data Source
AI summary
An edible gummy which may be formed of edible material mixed in a solid solution with medicinal or nutritional supplements. The gummy features a body formed with a plurality of recesses therein extending between a central opening and a sidewall defining a perimeter of the body. The body is easily separated into substantially equal portions having a substantially equal volume of the edible material therein to make dosing of any supplement or medicine contained in the edible material both easy and accurate.