Pump Dispenser Refill Structure for Hygienic Product Transfer
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing pump dispensers for oral, personal, or home care products require users to refill them, often resulting in direct contact with the product, necessitating hand washing afterward, which is inconvenient and poses hygiene risks.
Innovation Solution
A pump dispenser system that includes a container with a protrusion for piercing a refill container, allowing the product to be added without direct user contact, using a water-soluble refill container that dissolves to facilitate refilling, ensuring the user remains isolated from the product during the process.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the user manually refills the pump dispenser by contacting the product, then the refilling operation can be performed, but the user comes into direct contact with the product requiring hand washing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a refill container as an intermediary device that holds the product and transfers it to the pump dispenser without requiring the user to directly contact the product. The refill container acts as a mediator between the product source and the dispenser, allowing refilling while maintaining hygiene by keeping user hands away from the product.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If a refill container is introduced to avoid contact, then hygiene risk is reduced, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a disposable refill container that is used once and then discarded. This approach reduces device complexity by eliminating the need for complex reusable refilling mechanisms, cleaning systems, or sterilization features. The simple, single-use nature of the refill container provides hygiene protection without adding significant complexity to the overall system.
Data Source
AI summary
A pump dispenser, having a container with a body defining a chamber for storing a product and defining an opening at a first end of the chamber through which the product is dispensable, the body having a first surface at a second end of the chamber, opposite from the first end; a closure movable between a closed position where the closure blocks the opening and an open position where the opening is not blocked; a pump for pumping the product from the chamber; and a projection extending from the closure, the projection having a first portion extending from the closure and a second portion extending from the first portion, the first and second portions extending in different directions, the second portion having a second surface that faces and approaches the first surface of the body when the closure is moved from the open position to the closed position.