Marker Tip Holder Pad With Flexible Leaflets for Tool-Free Replacement
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing pen-styluses require replaceable parts that are difficult to replace without specialized tools, affecting user convenience and productivity.
Innovation Solution
A container with a holder pad featuring flexible leaflets and arresters that securely hold replaceable marker tips, allowing easy removal and replacement by hand without tools, using an interference fit mechanism.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If conventional pen-styluses use fixed marker tips, then structural simplicity is maintained, but replaceability and user convenience deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The container is divided into multiple independent holders, each capable of holding a single marker tip. This segmentation allows individual marker tips to be replaced without affecting the entire container structure, improving replaceability while maintaining overall structural simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The container transitions from a static fixed structure to a dynamic system where marker tips can be easily inserted and removed. The holders are designed with flexible mechanisms that allow manual operation, enabling users to replace marker tips without specialized tools while maintaining secure retention during use.
2Ease of operation
If marker tips are made replaceable, then user convenience improves, but replacement difficulty without tools worsens
Solution Approach 1:
The container holders are designed to be self-servicing, allowing users to insert and remove marker tips using only their fingers. The flexible holder mechanisms automatically grip and secure marker tips without requiring external tools, enabling tool-free replacement while maintaining secure retention during use.
Solution Approach 2:
The holders utilize flexible materials that can deform to accommodate marker tip insertion and removal. This flexibility allows users to manually manipulate the holders to release and secure marker tips without specialized tools, while the flexible structure maintains secure retention during normal use.
3Reliability
If marker tips are securely held, then retention reliability improves, but removal ease deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The holder mechanism dynamically adjusts its gripping force based on the operational state. During retention, the flexible holder maintains secure grip through elastic deformation. During removal, the same flexibility allows the holder to deform and release the marker tip easily, achieving both secure retention and easy removal without requiring excessive force or specialized tools.
Solution Approach 2:
The holder's mechanical properties are optimized to change effectively between retention and removal states. The flexible material properties allow the holder to maintain high gripping force during normal use for reliable retention, while allowing controlled deformation during removal for easy extraction, achieving both objectives through material parameter optimization.
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
Facilitates quick and tool-free replacement of marker tips, enhancing user convenience and minimizing downtime.
Implementation Method 1
a flexible leaflet, that surrounds the opening in the holder, wherein the flexible leaflet has an interference shape
Implementation Method 2
the flexible leaflet has an interference shape that also narrows in diameter as it approaches an arrester
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3
Figure 4~5
AI summary
Embodiments of the invention provide a container (e.g., marker tip holder box) that comprises a holding pad (e.g., marker tip holder pad) having a plurality of holders to retain objects (e.g., marker tips for use with a pen-stylus). Each holder has an opening to receive an object (e.g., a marker tip). Each holder further comprises a flexible leaflet, that surrounds the opening in the holder, wherein the flexible leaflet has an irregular but nearly conical shape that narrows in diameter as it approaches an arrester that is located below the flexible leaflet, such that a retained object rests in the arrester in the holder. The flexible leaflet has two states, a first state that holds the retained object (e.g., a marker tip) with sufficient firmness to retain the object in the holder, and a second state in which the irregular but nearly conical shape of the flexible leaflet interferes with an outer housing of the object retained in the holder to form a flexure that enables removal of the retained object from the container.