Mobile storage apparatus
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional storage and transport containers for maintaining temperature-sensitive items, such as organs and vaccines, are limited by their small size and lightweight materials, which restrict their ability to maintain a desired temperature for extended periods.
Innovation Solution
A mobile storage apparatus with a wheeled base and an insulated storage chamber, featuring a thin sheet-form liner that divides the chamber into a main volume for objects and a peripheral volume for thermally conductive passive temperature control devices, which slow or reduce temperature changes when the power supply is stopped.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Weight of moving object
If storage boxes are made small and lightweight for manual carrying, then portability is improved, but the ability to maintain desired temperature for long periods deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The storage chamber is divided into two distinct volumes by the liner: a main central volume for storing temperature-sensitive objects and a minor peripheral volume for holding thermally conductive passive temperature control devices. This segmentation allows the compact box to incorporate temperature control mechanisms without compromising portability, as the control devices are confined to the peripheral space around the liner.
Solution Approach 2:
A liner made of thermally conductive material is introduced as an intermediary element between the storage chamber walls and the stored objects. The liner acts as a thermal mediator that facilitates heat transfer between the passive temperature control devices in the peripheral volume and the objects in the main volume, enabling effective temperature control despite the small size and lightweight construction of the storage box.
2Weight of moving object
If lightweight materials are used for storage boxes, then ease of transport is improved, but thermal insulation performance deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The storage box employs a composite thermal control system combining lightweight insulation materials for the chamber construction with thermally conductive materials for the liner and passive temperature control devices. This composite approach allows the box to remain lightweight for easy transport while achieving reliable temperature control through the synergistic combination of insulating and conductive materials in different functional zones.
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 solution effectively maintains a stable temperature for longer periods, enhancing the storage capabilities of temperature-sensitive items during transport and storage.
Implementation Method 1
the one or more thermally conductive passive temperature control devices reduce or slow a rate of temperature change within the main central volume of the storage chamber
Data Source
AI summary
A mobile storage apparatus includes a cabinet having an insulated, closable storage chamber adapted to accommodate one or more objects in a temperature controlled environment. The cabinet also has or associated with a system for changing a temperature level of the storage chamber when the system is powered by a power supply. A storage chamber liner is provided and preferably formed from thin, sheet-form material arranged within the chamber adjacent one or more sides of the chamber, but spaced from one or more sides such that the liner divides a volume of the storage chamber into a main central volume for accommodating one or more objects in a temperature controlled environment and a minor peripheral volume for receiving one or more thermally conductive passive temperature control devices. In use, when a power supply to the temperature level changing system is stopped, the one or more thermally conductive passive temperature control devise reduce or slow a rate of temperature change within the main central volume of the storage chamber.