Biodegradable Plant Pot Pad With Jute Layer For Water Retention
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing water and root permeable pads for houseplant pots or soil lack a strong and slow biodegradable layer, leading to uneven gel distribution and potential water runoff, necessitating frequent watering and root growth issues.
Innovation Solution
A pad with a jute layer attached to a separation sheet, ensuring even gel distribution and strength, combined with a protective sheet to prevent gel displacement, using biodegradable materials and air-permeable gel for extended water retention and root oxygen access.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If a separation sheet made of paper, cardboard or biodegradable plastic is used, then the pad is biodegradable and environmentally friendly, but the sheet lacks sufficient strength and degrades quickly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines biodegradable materials (paper, cardboard, or biodegradable plastic layer) with natural fiber material (jute) to create a composite separation sheet. The jute layer provides the necessary mechanical strength while the biodegradable layer maintains environmental friendliness. This composite structure resolves the contradiction by integrating materials with complementary properties.
2Quantity of substance
If gel is attached to the separation sheet, then water retention is improved, but the gel may become unevenly distributed and cause water runoff
Solution Approach 1:
The gel is pre-attached to the separation sheet in a controlled manufacturing process before the pad is used. This preliminary action ensures that the gel is evenly distributed across the sheet surface, preventing uneven gel layers and water runoff during actual use. The gel layer is applied at a constant thickness to ensure uniform water retention throughout the pad.
3Ease of manufacture
If the separation sheet degrades quickly, then biodegradability is enhanced, but the separation between gel and soil is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The separation sheet uses a composite structure where the biodegradable layer (paper, cardboard, or biodegradable plastic) provides environmental friendliness while the jute layer provides durable mechanical strength and structural integrity. The jute layer degrades slower than the biodegradable layer, maintaining the separation between gel and soil throughout the functional life of the pad, thus resolving the contradiction between rapid biodegradation and reliable separation maintenance.
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
The pad maintains a constant gel layer thickness, reducing watering frequency and ensuring root growth, while the jute layer maintains separation from soil, and the protective sheet enhances handling, allowing for prolonged water retention and root oxygen access.
Implementation Method 1
the water penetrates through one of the layers into the gel which expands as a result
Implementation Method 2
The gel is preferably an air-permeable gel so that the roots also with their extremities grown into the gel can continue to extract oxygen
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3~6
AI summary
For forming a water-retaining layer at the bottom of a houseplant pot so that the plant present in the houseplant pot needs watering less frequently, a pad (11) comprising a root permeable separation sheet (13) having swellable gel pellets (15) attached to one side and evenly spread over this side, is placed on the bottom of a houseplant pot with the root- permeable separation sheet turned upwards. Subsequently, soil is added to the pad in the houseplant pot after which water is added so as to make the gel pellets swell. During a watering operation the water is absorbed and retained by the gel layer. After this the plant can be potted in the soil. The roots of the plant will grow into the gel layer at the bottom of the houseplant pot and extract water from the gel layer for a long period of time, so that watering needs to take place less frequently.