Safety Container With Locking Pin And Sealing Member
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Solution Overview
Problem
There is a lack of containers that are both child-resistant and moisture-resistant, particularly reusable ones that can maintain moisture resistance, posing challenges for storing materials like spices and herbal medicine that require both safety and extended shelf life.
Innovation Solution
A safety container design featuring a container body with a lip portion and a cover section that includes a pin channel, locking pin, and sealing member, which engages to lock and unlock securely, ensuring child-resistance and moisture-resistance through a dual-locking mechanism that allows for easy opening by adults while preventing access by children and maintaining dryness.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a container is designed to be child-resistant with a locking mechanism, then child safety is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the child-resistant locking mechanism and moisture-resistant sealing function into a single integrated cap assembly. The locking arms and sealing surfaces are merged into one component structure that performs both safety locking and moisture barrier functions simultaneously, reducing overall device complexity while maintaining both child resistance and moisture resistance capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The cap is divided into distinct functional segments: locking arms for child resistance, sealing surfaces for moisture resistance, and hinge mechanisms for operability. Each segment is optimized independently but integrates seamlessly with others, allowing the complex functions to be managed through modular design rather than a monolithic complex structure.
2Ease of operation
If a moisture-resistant container is made reusable with a resealable cap, then ease of operation is improved, but moisture resistance deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The cap incorporates pre-formed sealing surfaces and gasket structures that are prepared in advance during manufacturing. These preliminary sealing elements ensure that when the cap is closed, moisture resistance is immediately re-established without requiring additional user actions or degradation of sealing performance over repeated use cycles.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses flexible sealing gaskets and conforming sealing surfaces that can repeatedly compress and release while maintaining their sealing integrity. These flexible elements adapt to minor variations in container cap geometry through multiple open-close cycles, preserving moisture resistance even with frequent reuse.
3Reliability
If a locking mechanism requires sufficient force to open, then child resistance is improved, but ease of operation for adults deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The locking mechanism uses dynamic elements including spring-loaded locking arms and movable latch points that respond differently to applied forces. When a child applies force, the springs maintain strong engagement. When an adult applies sufficient force, the mechanism dynamically transitions to an unlocked state through cam surfaces and release levers that convert the adult's force into disengagement motion.
Solution Approach 2:
The opening mechanism employs asymmetric lever arms and force application points that are optimized for adult hand geometry and strength characteristics. The release lever is positioned and sized to provide mechanical advantage specifically for adult fingers, while the locking engagement remains symmetric and equally strong against child attempts to open.
Data Source
AI summary
A safety container having a container section with a container body and a lip portion above an inner surface of a passage in the body. A cover section conforms to at least a part of the lip portion and is coupled thereto. A sealing member is coupled to a bottom portion of the cover section. A locking pin is slidably mounted to the bottom portion of the cover section and engageable with the container section. In a locked position, the container section and the cover section are locked by the locking pin outer end engaging the lip portion outer end, and the sealing member engaging the container body inner surface, to seal the passage of the container body. In an open position, the locking pin and the lip portion are disengaged, and the locking pin is engaged upward to at least partially remove the cover section from the container section.