Multi-Spout Water Cooler with Retractable Legs
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional portable coolers are limited by single spout designs, requiring users to drink one at a time, and often need a horizontal support for use, which can be inconvenient, especially in situations like team sports where multiple users need hydration simultaneously. Additionally, traditional folding legs are bulky and protrude when retracted, making storage and transport difficult.
Innovation Solution
A portable cooler with multiple radially spaced spigots and foldable legs that can be deployed for stability above ground, allowing multiple users to drink concurrently, and can be easily stowed or placed on a horizontal surface. The legs are hinged and snap-fit into channels for compact storage, reducing volume and interference with other objects.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a single spout design is used, then the cooler structure is simple, but multiple users cannot drink simultaneously
Solution Approach 1:
The cooler is divided into multiple compartments, each with its own spout. This segmentation allows multiple users to access beverages simultaneously from different compartments, resolving the contradiction between serving multiple users and maintaining simple structure.
2Ease of operation
If folding legs are deployed to support the cooler above ground, then the cooler is more stable and easier to use, but the legs protrude when retracted making storage and transport difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The folding legs are designed to nest within the cooler body when retracted. This nesting arrangement allows the legs to be stored inside the cooler's volume, eliminating protrusion and reducing the overall volume when the cooler needs to be transported or stored.
3Volume of moving object
If the cooler is placed on the ground without support, then the volume is minimized, but the height is too low making actuation difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The cooler incorporates deployable legs that can transform from a retracted state to an extended state. This dynamic structure allows the cooler to adjust its height based on operational needs, providing easy access when deployed and compact volume when retracted.
4Stability of the object's composition
If traditional folding legs are used, then the cooler can be elevated for stability, but the legs are bulky and obtrusive when retracted
Solution Approach 1:
The legs are designed with a nesting mechanism that allows them to be stored within the cooler body. This eliminates the bulkiness and obtrusiveness of traditional folding legs when retracted, while maintaining the stability benefit when deployed.
Data Source
AI summary
A portable, multi-mode, multi-user cooler for storing and selectively dispensing beverages. A plastic, cylindrical container forms a hopper that mounts a removable top. Multiple, external recessed channels are formed in the container at radially spaced-apart locations. Deployable legs formed of multiple segments are housed within the channels when retracted. A plurality of user-actuable dispensing spigots that are radially spaced-apart around the periphery of the body are located between adjacent legs. Legs are deployed by unfolding them once removed from the storage channels. Selectively deployable, coaxial sleeves fitted to leg elements can be slidably deployed to lock the knees in axial alignment to secure and brace the legs. An internal divider partitions the container volume into separate compartments aligned with separate radially spaced-apart spigots.