Temporarily mutually connectable cups for efficiently serving drinks and food
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing solutions for serving large groups with cups, mugs, or bowls are inefficient, as they require a tray and struggle with balancing, and previous connectable cup designs are limited by weak connections that can only support a few items before becoming impractical.
Innovation Solution
The design incorporates a hook element integrated into the wall or handle of cups, allowing for temporary mutual connection around a central cup, enabling efficient serving without a tray, with features like curvature matching and a thumb holding part for stability, and materials like glass, ceramics, or plastic for versatility.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If a tray is used to serve multiple cups, then the capacity to serve large groups is improved, but the device complexity and balancing difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple cups are merged into a single connected structure through hook elements that interlock between adjacent cups. This allows several cups to be combined into one unit that can be carried as a single assembly, eliminating the need for a separate tray while maintaining the ability to serve multiple people simultaneously
Solution Approach 2:
The connection system is segmented into individual hook elements on each cup that can independently connect to adjacent cups. This modular approach allows flexible configuration of cup groups and enables easy attachment/detachment without requiring complex tray mechanisms
2Ease of operation
If previous connectable cup designs are used, then the ease of operation is improved, but the connection strength is insufficient to support more than 2-3 cups
Solution Approach 1:
The hook elements extend horizontally from the cup walls rather than vertically, creating connections in the horizontal plane. This dimensional change distributes mechanical stress across multiple connection points around the cup circumference, significantly increasing the overall structural strength while maintaining ease of connection
Solution Approach 2:
The hook elements are integrated into the cup wall structure itself, with hooks on one cup nesting into grooves or complementary features on adjacent cups. This integration strengthens the connection by making the hook part of the cup's structural framework rather than an external attachment
Data Source
Figure 1~3
Figure 4~5
Figure 6~9
AI summary
Temporarily mutually connectable cups (1,11,12) for efficiently serving all kinds of beverage and food such as granular food, crisps, sauces, soup, yoghurt etc. Said cups (1,11,12) have special fully integrated hook elements (4, 41,42). In the cup wall (2) or on the handles (51,52) with stabilizing thumb holding parts (6, 61) and the wall (2) has a thickness d. With said elements (4,41,42) several surrounding cups (1,11,12) are temporarily mutually connected with a central cup (1,11,12) and so forming a group of serving out cups (1,11,12) which is carried manually (3) by a waiter. In this manner a very efficient serving system is obtained.