Plastic Inner Container V-Shaped Outlet Hopper for Liquid Draining
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing inner containers for transporting and storing liquids, particularly thixotropic liquids like lacquers, face challenges in complete emptying due to their design, leading to inefficient use and costly purging processes, as residual liquids often require stirring and can separate, making it difficult to utilize the entire container volume.
Innovation Solution
The inner container features a V-shaped outlet hopper with a keel-shaped base and inclined lateral walls, allowing liquids to drain effectively towards the hopper base, forming a reservoir for efficient stirring and minimizing residual amounts, while the support means ensures secure placement on a transport pallet, enhancing emptying and transport safety.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of stationary object
If the container is designed with a maximized container volume and adapted to the receiving space on the transport pallet, then the container volume utilization is improved, but the complete emptying of the container becomes difficult and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The container bottom is segmented into multiple zones: a main storage area and an outlet hopper section. The outlet hopper is further divided into lateral hopper walls and a keel-shaped hopper base, creating a dedicated drainage path that separates the emptying function from the storage function, enabling complete drainage while maintaining maximum storage volume.
Solution Approach 2:
The keel-shaped hopper base extends from the outlet neck toward the rear wall with a rising keel line at a hopper angle β, adding a longitudinal dimension to the drainage path. This three-dimensional configuration ensures that all liquid flows toward the hopper base in the direction of the keel line, preventing residual liquid accumulation and enabling complete emptying.
2Volume of stationary object
If the container is designed to maximize container volume within the receiving space, then the storage capacity is improved, but residual liquid remains in the container requiring costly purging and cleaning processes
Solution Approach 1:
The outlet hopper with its V-shaped lateral walls and keel-shaped base is pre-configured to guide all liquid flow toward the hopper base before the container is filled or during the filling process. This preliminary structural arrangement ensures that when emptying occurs, the liquid naturally accumulates at the hopper base and drains completely, preventing residual liquid without requiring additional purging actions.
3Manufacturing precision
If the container is designed with smooth walls and optimized geometry for volume, then the manufacturing precision and volume utilization are improved, but thixotropic liquids separate and require stirring that cannot be performed on residual amounts
Solution Approach 1:
The outlet hopper structure extracts and removes the residual liquid from the main storage volume. By concentrating all liquid flow into the hopper base through the V-shaped walls and keel line, the design separates the storage function from the drainage function, ensuring that only the necessary residual amount remains at the hopper base where it can be effectively drained, rather than being distributed throughout the container where it would require stirring.
4Productivity
If the outlet hopper has steep lateral walls for efficient drainage, then the emptying speed is improved, but the hopper angle must be optimized to prevent liquid accumulation while maintaining drainage efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The lateral hopper walls are configured at a specific hopper angle α in relation to the horizontal, optimized to balance drainage efficiency with liquid flow control. The keel line rises at a hopper angle β from the outlet neck, creating a gradient that guides liquid flow. These parameter optimizations ensure rapid emptying of thixotropic liquids while preventing accumulation, adapting the geometry to the specific flow characteristics of the liquids handled.
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
This design enables nearly complete emptying of the container, reducing the need for costly stirring and purging, optimizing the use of the container volume and improving transport stability by ensuring the liquid accumulates at the hopper base for efficient stirring and preventing cluster formation.
Implementation Method 1
allowing liquids to drain effectively towards the hopper base
Data Source
AI summary
An inner plastic liquid container (25) includes a filling neck (41) in an upper wall (33) for filling the inner container and a front side outlet neck (40) for an outlet armature. A lower wall (28) interconnecting two side walls (30, 31), a rear wall (32) and a front wall (29) supports the container on a transport pallet (21) pallet base (26), which has an outer mantle (24) for receiving the container. The outlet neck is at a hopper bottom (39) of an outlet hopper (34) in the lower bottom wall. The outlet hopper has a front hopper wall (35) and inclined lateral hopper walls (36, 37) that are arranged at a hopper angle and each extend from a keel-shaped hopper base (38) to a lower edge (46, 47) of a side wall. A keel line (63) rises at another hopper angle from an outlet neck toward the rear wall.