Reusable Grommet with Non-Round Configuration for Disposable Cage Boxes
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Solution Overview
Problem
Disposable animal cage boxes are not used with push-in watering facilities due to the high cost of durable grommets necessary for water fitting connections, which are expensive and difficult to reuse.
Innovation Solution
A grommet structure with a non-round configuration, featuring diametrically opposite tabs and a hinge flap, allows for easy assembly and disassembly by aligning and rotating the grommet within a non-round opening in the cage box wall, enabling reuse and reducing costs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If durable stainless steel grommets are used for water fitting connections in disposable cage boxes, then the reliability of water connection is improved, but the cost and complexity of the disposable cage box increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The grommet is divided into two separate components: a reusable stainless steel grommet body that remains in the rack, and a disposable plastic cage box. This segmentation allows the expensive durable component to be separated from the disposable component, enabling reuse of the grommet while maintaining the disposable nature of the cage box.
Solution Approach 2:
The grommet incorporates a spring-loaded flap that dynamically opens when water pressure is applied during insertion, allowing the water fitting to pass through, and automatically closes when pressure is released to prevent animal escape. This dynamic mechanism provides reliable animal containment without requiring complex permanent structures.
2Reliability
If durable stainless steel grommets are used for water fitting connections, then the reliability of water connection is improved, but the ease of manufacture of disposable cage boxes deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The manufacturing process is segmented into two independent streams: manufacturing reusable grommets separately from manufacturing disposable cage boxes. This eliminates the need to integrate expensive grommet assembly into the simple plastic injection molding process, maintaining ease of cage box manufacture while ensuring reliable water connections through the separate reusable grommet component.
Solution Approach 2:
The reusable grommet acts as an intermediary component that mediates between the disposable cage box and the permanent water supply infrastructure. It provides the reliable water connection interface without requiring the cage box itself to incorporate complex durable components, thus maintaining ease of cage box manufacture.
3Loss of substance
If reusable grommets are implemented in disposable cage boxes, then the loss of substance is reduced, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The spring-loaded flap mechanism provides automatic dynamic closure that prevents animal escape through the water fitting passage. This dynamic solution is more space-efficient and mechanically simpler than alternative approaches such as removable caps, flaps requiring manual operation, or complex locking mechanisms, thereby reducing overall device complexity while enabling grommet reuse.
4Ease of manufacture
If a simple round opening is provided in the cage wall for water fitting passage, then the ease of manufacture is improved, but the animal containment reliability deteriorates due to potential escape through the opening
Solution Approach 1:
The spring-loaded flap provides automatic dynamic closure that responds to water pressure: it opens when pressure is applied during insertion to allow water fitting passage, and closes when pressure is released to prevent animal escape. This dynamic mechanism maintains simple round opening geometry for ease of manufacture while reliably preventing animal escape through the passage.
Data Source
AI summary
An animal cage box has a grommet for passing a watering conduit through a box side wall. The grommet is removably attachable at an opening through the side wall, using a non-round configuration by which the grommet is aligned for insertion into a non-round opening, and turned to hold the grommet in place. A flange on the grommet body rests against one face of the side wall. The non-round configuration includes one or more tabs that can be cut from the flange and are displaced axially by a distance equal to the side wall thickness. A hinge flap that can be grasped in the fingers helps to hold, align, insert or remove and twist the grommet relative to the side wall. The disclosed arrangement further minimized the cost of using inexpensive disposable cage boxes because relatively expensive grommets, for example of stainless steel, can be cleaned and reused.