Rotatable Multi-Nozzle Dispensing Head for Rapid Socket Selection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing utensils for dispensing pasty or viscous food products, such as piping bags, are cumbersome to change sockets, requiring tedious screwing and unscrewing operations, and often lack immediate access to the desired socket for achieving different decorative effects.
Innovation Solution
A device with a dispensing head featuring a pivot connection allowing easy rotation to select from multiple integrated sockets, which are connected to the internal passage via a frustoconical assembly cone, enabling quick and easy socket changes without screwing, and visual indicators for easy selection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a single nozzle is used with a piping bag, then the device is simple in structure, but changing nozzles is difficult and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The dispensing device is segmented into a body containing multiple nozzles arranged in a circular array, allowing the user to select different nozzles by rotating the body. This segmentation enables multiple nozzle functions within a single device structure, resolving the contradiction between adaptability and complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The dispensing device is designed as a multi-functional unit where a single body incorporates multiple nozzles with different profiles. By rotating the body, one nozzle is selected at a time for use, providing universal nozzle functionality without requiring separate single-nozzle devices, thus improving adaptability while maintaining manageable complexity.
2Ease of operation
If multiple nozzles are integrated in a single dispensing head, then socket changing becomes easier, but the device structure becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The distribution head is designed to rotate dynamically around the nozzle assembly axis, allowing easy selection between multiple nozzles. This dynamic rotation mechanism simplifies the operation of changing nozzles from a complex manual replacement process to a simple rotational selection, improving ease of operation while the modular structure keeps complexity manageable.
Solution Approach 2:
The nozzles are arranged in a circular array around the central axis, and the distribution head rotates in a circular manner to select different nozzles. This circular/spheroidal arrangement provides ergonomic ease of rotation and simplifies the mechanical design compared to linear arrays, improving ease of operation while maintaining structural efficiency.
3Loss of time
If a frustoconical assembly cone is used for pivot connection, then socket selection is rapid and precise, but manufacturing precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The frustoconical assembly cone provides self-aligning and self-centering functionality during the rotation and selection of nozzles. The conical geometry automatically guides the distribution head into the correct position, reducing the need for high-precision manual assembly and machining, thus decreasing manufacturing precision requirements while enabling rapid socket selection.
Solution Approach 2:
The frustoconical shape of the assembly cone provides built-in tolerance compensation and error correction before the final engagement position is reached. The gradual convergence of the conical surfaces allows for misalignment correction during the approach phase, cushioning against positioning errors and reducing the stringency of manufacturing precision requirements.
Data Source
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AI summary
The apparatus comprises a container (1) for a viscous product comprising a casing (10) made of a deformable flexible material, and a rotatable dispensing head (3) comprising a body on which a set of sockets is arranged. The casing comprises an upstream end (11) having a filling opening (12) and a downstream end (16) having a dispensing opening (17), which is adapted to a connection piece comprising an internal passage communicating with the dispensing opening and adapted to receive the socket having an outlet end provided with a cutting cord adapted to provide a predetermined shape. The apparatus comprises a container (1) for a viscous product comprising a casing (10) made of a deformable flexible material, and a rotatable dispensing head (3) comprising a body on which a set of sockets is arranged. The casing comprises an upstream end (11) having a filling opening (12) and a downstream end (16) having a dispensing opening (17), which is adapted to a connection piece comprising an internal passage communicating with the dispensing opening and adapted to receive the socket having an outlet end provided with a cutting cord adapted to provide a predetermined shape. The body is connected to the connection piece along a pivotal connection adapted to guide the rotatable dispensing head about an axis of a connection between the body and the connecting piece so as to selectively connect the internal passage of the connection piece to one of the sockets. The pivotal connection comprises an inner core housing of frustoconical shape provided in the body of the head and a cone assembly of the connecting piece, and a hollow body forming the internal passage. The cone assembly is complementary to the inner core housing and slidably inserted in the inner core housing. Each of the sockets is circumferentially distributed to the inner core housing, in which it opens through the inlet port of the socket adapted to be brought into contact with an aperture formed on a conical surface of the cone assembly when the dispensing head is guided in rotation about the cone assembly. Each of the sockets radially extends along the thickness of the body from its input port to its output port opposite to the input port. The device further comprises an indicating unit adapted to visually indicate the selectively connected socket to the internal passage. The indicating unit includes a first visual indicator disposed on the connection piece and second visual pins disposed on the dispensing head associated with the sockets. The first visual indicator and the second visual pins are placed at right angles to each other to allow the selective connection of the internal passage. The downstream end of the casing has an external thread. The connection piece comprises an annular shaped ferrule provided with an internal thread capable of cooperating with the external thread for mounting the connection piece on the downstream end of the casing. The casing comprises a removable base adapted to be joined to the upstream end of the casing so as to close the opening filling of the casing. The dispensing head is formed in one piece by injection molding of a thermoplastic material. The casing is made of an elastically deformable material of thermoplastic elastomer type.