Hinged Storage Enclosure Sealing and Purge Gas Distribution
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing container designs for storing sensitive materials, particularly in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, face challenges in maintaining a gas-tight seal and ensuring efficient purging due to the limitations of conventional hinge mechanisms and the need for additional ducting systems, which can increase complexity and cost.
Innovation Solution
The container design incorporates a hinge mechanism with two degrees of freedom, allowing rotational and translational movement for improved sealing, and utilizes the supporting compartments as a ducting system to ensure effective gas mixing and distribution within the container.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional hinge mechanisms are used for the lid or door, then the container structure is simple, but the gas-tight seal cannot be reliably achieved
Solution Approach 1:
The hinge mechanism is designed with two degrees of freedom, allowing it to adapt dynamically to manufacturing tolerances and thermal expansion. The first degree of freedom allows rotational movement for opening/closing, while the second degree of freedom allows translational adjustment to maintain optimal sealing contact, ensuring reliable gas-tight sealing without requiring overly complex precision engineering.
Solution Approach 2:
The hinge mechanism incorporates adjustable parameters including pivot point position and blade orientation angles. These parameters can be adjusted during assembly or operation to optimize the sealing contact between the lid/door and container body, allowing the system to compensate for variations in manufacturing tolerances and maintain reliable sealing.
2Productivity
If additional ducting systems are added for purging, then purging efficiency is improved, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The supporting compartments that are already part of the container structure serve dual functions: they provide structural support for the stored materials and simultaneously act as ducting elements for the purging gas flow. This eliminates the need for separate dedicated ducting systems, reducing overall device complexity while maintaining effective purging capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The purging ducting function is merged with the existing supporting compartment structure. The compartments are designed with open sides or permeable walls that allow purging gas to flow through them, combining the support and gas distribution functions into a single integrated structure, thereby reducing the number of separate components needed.
Data Source
AI summary
Enclosure for storing sensitive materials are disclosed. They may be in a special container (1), sealed and purged, replacing the internal atmosphere with an inert purge gas, and leaving the sealed container slightly pressurized. By hinging a lid or door (5) to the container via hinges (12, 13), the respective parts of which can move relative to one another translationally, at least when the door or lid (1) is in the closed position, and in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the door or lid, much improved sealing may be achieved. The invention also relates to methods used to deliver and duct the purge gas within the container to ensure good purge gas delivery and mixing.