Overmolded Pouch With Through-Body Protrusions for Item Retention
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Solution Overview
Problem
Typical pouch designs suffer from high play and wobble between the item or accessory and the pouch, leading to potential unintentional removal, due to inadequate frictional engagement and smooth surfaces, which can result in the item or accessory falling out.
Innovation Solution
The overmolded/through-molded pouch features contoured wall portions with overmold apertures and resilient overmolding material extending through these apertures into the pouch cavity, providing frictional engagement and reducing wobble through through-body protrusions, which are textured for enhanced grip.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If the pouch uses smooth interior surfaces, then the pouch material is easy to manufacture, but the frictional engagement between the pouch and item is insufficient, causing high play and wobble
Solution Approach 1:
The pouch interior surface is modified with localized textured regions or protrusions at specific contact points, while the rest of the surface remains smooth for easy manufacturing. This localized texturing provides enhanced frictional engagement and reduced wobble without requiring the entire pouch to be complex to manufacture.
2Reliability
If the pouch uses contoured wall portions to reduce play, then the item retention improves, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of contouring the entire pouch cavity, only specific wall portions or strategic locations are contoured or textured to provide the necessary frictional engagement. This partial action reduces play and improves retention while keeping the overall pouch structure simple and easy to manufacture.
3Reliability
If the pouch uses overmolding material extending through apertures, then the frictional engagement and grip are enhanced, but the manufacturing process becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The overmolding process is integrated with the pouch manufacturing by forming the textured protrusions and apertures as part of the same molding operation. This merging of steps creates the friction-enhancing features without requiring separate post-processing steps, thus maintaining ease of manufacture while improving item retention.
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 secures items or accessories within the pouch by minimizing wobble and ensuring secure retention, allowing for easy insertion and removal while maintaining the item inside the pouch.
Implementation Method 1
The material used to form the pouch may have a relatively smooth or slick surface, which does not provide a desired level of frictional engagement between the interior of the pouch and the outer surface of the inserted item or accessory
Data Source
AI summary
An overmolded/through-molded pouch, having one or more wall portions defining a pouch body, wherein the pouch body extends from a substantially open top portion to a bottom portion, and wherein the one or more wall portions define an at least partial pouch cavity of the pouch body; at least one overmold aperture formed through a portion of one or more of the one or more wall portions; and an overmolding material extending atop at least a portion of an exterior surface of the pouch body, wherein at least a portion of the overmolding material extends through the at least one overmold aperture, such that at least a portion of the overmolding material extends through at least a portion of the at least one overmold aperture and into at least a portion of the at least partial pouch cavity.