Magnetic Release Vermin Trap With Weight-Triggered Tipping Panel
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional animal traps are messy, violent, and inhumane, often requiring contact and cleanup after capturing animals, and pose challenges in disposal and humane treatment.
Innovation Solution
A trap design that uses a pivoting panel or cylinder held by a magnet to capture animals in a bin, allowing for humane disposal or release, without direct contact, featuring a bait-enticing mechanism where the animal's weight causes the panel or cylinder to tip into the bin, ensuring efficient and clean operation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If conventional animal traps are used, then the trapping function is achieved, but the traps are messy, violent, and require contact and cleanup
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical spring-loaded trap mechanisms with a magnetic field-based system. A magnet attached to the panel interacts with a ferromagnetic material on the animal's collar, providing a non-contact holding and release mechanism that eliminates violence and mess associated with conventional traps
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a ferromagnetic collar as an intermediary between the trap mechanism and the animal. The collar contains a ferromagnetic material that interacts with the magnet, allowing the panel to be held in place and released without direct mechanical contact with the animal's body
2Force
If the magnet directly attaches to the panel, then the holding force is strong, but the panel fails to tip in some cases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies magnetic force locally at the interface between the magnet and ferromagnetic material rather than distributing it across the entire panel. This concentrated local force provides strong holding when needed but allows easy release when the animal's weight creates sufficient moment to overcome the magnetic attraction
3Object-affected harmful factors
If traditional traps are used, then animals are captured, but the traps are inhumane and require disposal
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces violent mechanical trapping with a gentle magnetic release mechanism that allows for humane animal release. The magnetic field can be deactivated or reduced to release the animal without physical harm, and the bin system allows for easy transport and release without cleanup
Solution Approach 2:
The trap design allows users to transport captured animals in the bin to desired locations and release them without requiring trap disassembly or cleanup. The system serves the user's needs for humane disposal or relocation without additional steps
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 trap effectively captures animals humanely and efficiently, allowing for safe transport or humane disposal, eliminating the need for direct contact and minimizing mess, while being easy to assemble and use.
Implementation Method 1
The panel is held level by a magnet to prevent the panel from prematurely tipping when the pest first steps on the panel
Implementation Method 2
Only when the pest has reached the end of the panel near the bait does the weight of the animal overcome the magnet's attraction, cause the panel to tip downward
Data Source
AI summary
A trap for collecting animals includes a bin and a frame mounted above the bin's open top. A panel is mounted to the frame and pivots with respect to the stationary frame via a connection to a hinge. The frame includes a bait compartment at a first end of the panel that lures an animal to climb the frame and traverse the panel to get to the bait. The panel is held level by a magnet when the panel is unweighted, but when an animal attempts to cross the panel the weight of the animal overcomes the bias of the magnet and the panel tips downward, delivering the animal into the bin.