Rodent Trap with Pivoting Bait Platform and Transparent Housing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing rodent traps are inefficient due to complex mechanisms, pose safety risks, and are difficult to arm and clean, with animals often avoiding capture and traps being tricky to handle hygienically.
Innovation Solution
A trap design featuring a tunnel body with a pivoting platform for bait placement, an elastic return device with a radial and tangential component, and a cocking stop to simplify arming, combined with a transparent body for easy detection of trapped animals and a separable front section for cleaning, reducing the number of parts and assembly complexity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If a traditional swatter trap with a long stirrup path is used, then the mechanism is simple, but the mouse can avoid the stirrup during its 180° rotation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent guides the mouse through a tunnel body, constraining its movement to a specific path. This dimensional constraint ensures the mouse cannot avoid the stirrup by approaching from other directions, resolving the contradiction between simple mechanism and reliable capture.
2Reliability
If the stirrup path is shortened to 90° rotation, then capture reliability improves, but the triggering mechanism becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the tunnel body with the triggering mechanism by incorporating the platform and bait holder directly into the tunnel structure. This integration reduces overall device complexity while maintaining the effective 90° stirrup rotation for reliable capture.
Solution Approach 2:
The tunnel body serves multiple functions: it guides the mouse, houses the triggering mechanism, and provides structural support for the stirrup. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate components, simplifying the overall device while ensuring reliable capture.
3Ease of operation
If the bait holder is accessible from all sides, then the mouse can approach the bait easily, but the mouse can also avoid the stirrup when falling back
Solution Approach 1:
The patent provides selective accessibility: the bait holder is accessible from the tunnel entrance where the mouse approaches, but the stirrup is positioned to strike from above. This localized arrangement ensures the mouse can reach the bait while being vulnerable to the stirrup, resolving the contradiction between bait accessibility and capture reliability.
4Ease of operation
If the trap mechanism is completely accessible, then arming is straightforward, but it poses safety risks to children and pets
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the trap into an enclosed tunnel body containing the mechanism and an external bait loading system. This segmentation allows the mechanism to remain protected within the tunnel while maintaining arming functionality through the hatch, reducing safety risks to children and pets.
5Ease of manufacture
If the trap body is opaque, then manufacturing is simpler, but detection of trapped animals is delayed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses transparent or translucent material for the tunnel body, allowing visual detection of trapped animals. This material property change enables easy monitoring of trap status while maintaining manufacturing simplicity, resolving the contradiction between manufacturing ease and detection capability.
6Object-affected harmful factors
If the hatch is small for hygiene, then dirt containment is better, but manual access to the bait holder is difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the hatch dynamically openable for bait loading and closing for hygiene. This dynamic configuration allows the hatch to serve dual purposes: providing adequate access for bait placement while maintaining dirt containment during operation, resolving the contradiction between hygiene and ease of operation.
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 trap is easy to arm and clean, provides secure and hygienic handling, ensures quick detection of trapped animals, and contains dirt effectively, while being cost-effective and simple to manufacture.
Implementation Method 1
a return device in elastic deformation for the stirrup in the position taken by said elastic return device
Data Source
Figure 1
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Figure 4
AI summary
The invention relates to a trap (1) for animal pests, comprising: • a body (2) forming a tunnel, • a stirrup (4) having a striking bar (41) that is able to rotate about an axis between an armed position and an engaged position, • a spring (3) for returning the stirrup into the engaged position, • a trigger (5) for triggering the return of the stirrup from the armed position to the engaged position by the spring, characterized in that • the trigger (5) has a pivoting platform (54) comprising a bait holder (51) designed to allow solid bait to be fixed beneath the platform, • the body (2) of the trap has a flap (27) provided in the lower face of the body opposite the bait holder (51), said flap having an opening with a size suitable to allow manual access to the bait holder (51) and to allow the bait to be fixed to the bait holder.