Pet Chew Forming Apparatus for Secure Medicament Encapsulation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Pet owners face challenges in administering drugs and medicaments to their pets, as pets often refuse to ingest them orally, and existing solutions like hiding medicaments in food or using bone-shaped treats with pockets fail to ensure effective delivery due to ease of pill separation or size incompatibility.
Innovation Solution
A pet chew forming apparatus that uses a plunger and housing system to encapsulate medicaments within an edible composition, providing a secure and size-adaptable method for forming pet chews that are difficult to separate, featuring a receptacle with raised elements for support and a connection port for a flexible edible composition container.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If medicaments are hidden in sliced food, then pets may ingest the medicament, but the pet is able to dislodge the medicament from the sliced food and ingest the food without the medicament
Solution Approach 1:
The patent embeds the medicament inside a cavity within the edible composition itself, creating a nested structure where the pill is contained within the treat matrix. This ensures the medicament cannot be separated from the food, resolving the reliability issue while maintaining ease of administration.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a composite structure where the edible composition and medicament are integrated into a single unified treat. The medicament is encapsulated within the edible matrix, forming a composite material that combines the attractiveness of food with the therapeutic function of the medicament, preventing separation during ingestion.
2Reliability
If a bone shaped treat with a pocket is used to contain a pill, then the pill can be inserted and pocket closed, but there is no actual adhesion formed between the pill and the bone shaped treat allowing the pet to crack or sever the pocket and remove the pill
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of using a separate pocket structure, the patent nests the medicament directly within a cavity formed as part of the edible composition itself. This eliminates the need for separate pocket components and adhesion mechanisms, reducing structural complexity while ensuring the medicament is permanently embedded within the treat matrix.
3Adaptability or versatility
If a single size pocket is used in the bone shaped treat, then the structure is simple, but it is not suitable for many different sized pills
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a plunger mechanism that can be adjusted to different positions, allowing the receptacle cavity to dynamically adapt its dimensions. By moving the plunger to different locations, the same receptacle can accommodate pills of various sizes, providing versatility without requiring multiple fixed-size pockets or complex adjustable structures.
4Reliability
If the dough wrap is made with high extensibility to form a homogeneous mass with the medicament, then it is difficult for the animal to separate the medicament, but the dough wrap is very difficult to remove from the pet owner's hands after handling
Solution Approach 1:
The patent nests the medicament within a pre-formed cavity in the edible composition rather than requiring the dough to wrap around the pill. This eliminates the need for high extensibility and adhesive properties in the dough, allowing it to be easily handled and shaped while still achieving secure medicament encapsulation through the nested cavity structure.
Data Source
AI summary
A pet chew forming apparatus for dispensing a medicament comprising a plunger having an elongated piston operable with a piston cylinder of a housing. The piston is extendable from and retractable into the piston cylinder by sliding movement, and includes a receptacle having an opening. The plunger is positionable in a first loading position relative to the housing to expose the opening to the receptacle such that a medicament is insertable into the receptacle through the opening, and positionable in a second loading position relative to the housing to expose the opening to the receptacle such that an edible composition is insertable into the receptacle through the opening. The plunger is also positionable in an ejection position relative to the housing to eject a pet chew comprising the edible composition and medicament from the receptacle.