Segmented Animal Drinking Container with Weep Holes
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current drinking containers for animals are inefficient as they do not account for the flat shape of an animal's tongue, leading to significant water spillage during the lapping process, with larger animals being able to drink more due to their wider tongues but still losing about half the water before it reaches their mouth.
Innovation Solution
A container design featuring multiple sub-chambers with narrow, elongated dimensions and weep holes to equalize water levels, allowing the sides of the tongue to be close to the inner walls, reducing spillage, and optionally incorporating a reservoir for continuous water replenishment via an inverted bottle.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a wide container is used to accommodate larger animals, then more animals can use the container, but water spillage increases due to the flat tongue shape
Solution Approach 1:
The container is divided into multiple sub-chambers (first, second, third sub-chambers) with different width configurations. Each sub-chamber can accommodate animals of different sizes, and the narrow width of each sub-chamber reduces water spillage by allowing the tongue sides to be close to the inner walls during lapping.
Solution Approach 2:
Different sub-chambers have different width characteristics tailored to specific needs. The first sub-chamber has narrow walls to minimize spillage for smaller animals, while the second and third sub-chambers provide wider spaces for larger animals. This local differentiation allows each animal to drink efficiently in the sub-chamber that best fits its tongue width.
2Loss of substance
If the container width is reduced to minimize water spillage, then drinking efficiency improves, but the container cannot accommodate larger animals
Solution Approach 1:
The container is segmented into multiple sub-chambers with different width configurations. The first sub-chamber has narrow walls for minimal spillage, while the second and third sub-chambers have wider dimensions to accommodate larger animals. This segmentation allows the container to simultaneously optimize for both water retention and animal size accommodation.
3Device complexity
If a single large chamber is used, then the container is simple in design, but water spillage is significant due to tongue flatness
Solution Approach 1:
The container is divided into multiple sub-chambers connected by weep holes. This segmentation creates narrow drinking zones where the tongue sides are close to the inner walls, preventing water spillage. The weep holes maintain water level equality between chambers, ensuring proper functioning of the segmentation system.
Solution Approach 2:
Weep holes serve as intermediaries connecting the sub-chambers, allowing water to flow between chambers to equalize water levels. This intermediary mechanism enables the segmented structure to function as a unified system while maintaining the spillage-reducing narrow dimensions in each sub-chamber.
4Duration of action of moving object
If water is continuously replenished using an inverted bottle, then extended drinking periods are enabled, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The inverted bottle is pre-filled with water and positioned to automatically replenish the sub-chambers as water levels drop. This preliminary preparation of the water supply system enables extended drinking periods without requiring active intervention or complex pumping mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The inverted bottle automatically replenishes water in the sub-chambers based on water level differences, creating a self-service water supply system. The system uses gravity and pressure differential to move water from the reservoir to the drinking chambers without requiring external power or complex control mechanisms.
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
Enhances drinking efficiency by minimizing water loss during lapping, accommodating animals of different sizes, and ensuring continuous water supply, allowing animals to drink more effectively and for extended periods.
Implementation Method 1
each partition having a small weep hole near its bottom. The weep holes are designed to facilitate equalization of water level in each sub-chamber
Data Source
AI summary
A method of promoting efficient water drinking by animals uses any one of a number of container embodiments. A first embodiment of container contemplates five sub-chambers separated from one another by parallel partitions, with each partition having a small weep hole near its bottom to equalize water level in each sub-chamber. Each sub-chamber has an elongated length dimension and a width that is relatively narrow and designed to approximate the width of an animal's tongue. When an animal is drinking water from one of the sub-chambers of this embodiment, as the tongue is lapping, the sides of the tongue are close to the inner walls of the sub-chamber, thereby precluding some of the water resting on the tongue from falling off the tongue as the water is lifted into the animal's mouth. In this way, the efficiency of drinking using the lapping technique is enhanced. In a further embodiment, a second sub-chamber provides a reservoir for replenishing the first sub-chamber as it drains down through a small weep hole near the bottom of a common wall between the sub-chambers. The second sub-chamber may be designed to receive an inverted bottle filled with water so that continuous replenishment of the drinking sub-chamber through a weep hole connecting the supply sub-chamber may be accomplished.