Rotatable Protective Cap for Sterile Container Closure
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing closures for containers storing sterile or moisture-sensitive media face challenges in maintaining liquid-tight and sterile sealing after repeated piercing of septums, leading to potential contamination and moisture ingress, and are complicated by additional protective caps that require removal for access.
Innovation Solution
A rotatably mounted protective cap with a cut-out allows access to removal openings without detaching it, ensuring the septum remains protected until needed, and can be easily rotated to expose new areas for medium removal, maintaining sterility and preventing moisture ingress.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a protective cap is added to cover removal openings, then sterility and moisture protection are improved, but handling complexity and ease of operation deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The protective cap is designed to rotate relative to the closure cap, transforming from a static covering into a dynamic component. This rotational movement allows the cap to be easily repositioned to expose different removal openings without complete detachment, maintaining protection while simplifying access operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The protective cap is segmented with multiple cut-outs positioned at different locations, allowing selective access to individual removal openings. This segmentation enables the cap to protect multiple openings simultaneously while allowing targeted access to specific openings when needed.
2Ease of operation
If the protective cap is made detachable for easy removal, then ease of operation improves, but risk of loss and maintenance of sterile conditions deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The rotatable connection transforms the cap from a completely detachable component to a dynamically connected component. The cap remains attached to the closure assembly through rotation, eliminating the risk of complete detachment and loss while still allowing easy access to removal openings.
3Productivity
If multiple removal openings are provided, then productivity and versatility improve, but device complexity and difficulty of maintaining seal integrity worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The closure cap is segmented with multiple removal openings positioned at different locations, allowing simultaneous or sequential access to multiple openings. The protective cap corresponds with this segmentation through multiple cut-outs, enabling efficient medium removal while distributing the sealing requirements across multiple standardized septum locations.
Solution Approach 2:
Each removal opening with its septum serves as a universal access point for medium removal. The standardized design of multiple openings allows any of them to be used independently or in combination, providing versatility without requiring different types of access mechanisms for different openings.
Data Source
AI summary
A closure (2) for closing an opening of a container (1) for storing and removing sterile or moisture-sensitive media has a closure cap (3), which can be connected to the container in a fluid-tight manner, and a piercable, self-closing septum (20), which closes at least one removal opening (7) in the closure cap (3) in a fluid-tight manner, wherein the closure (2) has a rotatably mounted protective cap (4) with a cutout (5). The cutout (5) is arranged off-centre in the protective cap (4) and the closure cap (3) has off centre a closure region (9) which is not impinged by the at least one removal opening (7) and is larger than the cutout (5) in the protective cap (4). The closure (2) has a latching mechanism, which is suitable for arranging the protective cap (4) in relation to the closure cap (3) in such a way that the cutout (5) in the protective cap (4) is aligned either in line with the or a removal opening (7) in the closure cap (3) or at a distance from the removal opening or openings (7). The closure (2) has at least one tamper-proof means of protection.