Segmented Strawberry Container with Perforated Base
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current fruit containers fail to provide individualized treatment, optimal refrigeration, and attractive presentation for high-value fruits like strawberries, leading to quality deterioration and increased handling costs.
Innovation Solution
A detachable container composed of a lower base with alveolar recesses and an upper lid, joined by truncated pyramid-shaped supports, ensuring individualized storage and refrigeration, with a transparent lid for visual inspection and folding handles for easy transport, allowing minimal handling from harvesting to consumption.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If traditional bulk containers are used for strawberry transport, then storage capacity is improved, but fruit quality deteriorates due to rubbing and lack of individualized treatment
Solution Approach 1:
The container is divided into multiple individual compartments, each designed to hold a single strawberry. This segmentation prevents strawberries from contacting and rubbing against each other during transport, thereby maintaining fruit quality while achieving efficient bulk storage through the cumulative effect of multiple individual cells arranged in an organized grid pattern
2Ease of operation
If traditional plastic bags or trays are used, then ease of transport is improved, but refrigeration efficiency worsens due to poor air circulation
Solution Approach 1:
The container base incorporates a porous structure with numerous perforations distributed across its surface. These pores allow refrigerated air to circulate freely through the container, reaching each individual strawberry compartment efficiently. The porous design maintains structural integrity for easy transport while enabling superior thermal performance through enhanced air flow
3Object-affected harmful factors
If opaque containers are used, then protection from light damage is improved, but visual inspection and presentation worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The container lid is designed with selective transparency - certain regions are transparent to allow visual inspection and attractive presentation of the strawberries, while other regions incorporate UV-blocking properties or can be covered with opaque materials to protect the fruit from harmful light exposure. This local differentiation of optical properties simultaneously achieves both protection and inspection requirements
4Device complexity
If non-modular containers are used, then structural simplicity is improved, but handling efficiency worsens due to inability to divide into portions
Solution Approach 1:
The container is designed as a modular system where the base with individual compartments can be easily separated from the lid, and the entire structure can be divided into smaller portions. This segmentation enables flexible handling - the container can be transported as a complete unit for bulk delivery, then easily separated into individual servings at the point of use, thereby improving handling efficiency without requiring complex mechanisms
Solution Approach 2:
The container incorporates dynamic characteristics by allowing transition between different operational states: it can be assembled as a complete sealed container for transport, opened for refrigeration, divided into portions for individual serving, or completely disassembled for storage. This dynamic adaptability enhances handling efficiency across different stages of the supply chain while maintaining relatively simple structural components
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
Maintains optimal storage conditions and attractive presentation, minimizing fruit contact and handling, ensuring high-quality strawberries from field to consumer while facilitating efficient stacking, display, and easy separation into individual portions.
Implementation Method 1
The cells have perforations in their base which allow a homogeneous refrigeration since they guarantee the arrival of the cooling fluid to all pieces
Implementation Method 2
both elements being joined by means of truncated pyramid-shaped supports so that a container is obtained which behaves as a block once said join occurs
Data Source
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AI summary
Detachable container for strawberries which allows the transport, storage, presentation and consumption of the fruit in optimum conditions and with minimum handling from harvesting until consumption, formed by the joining through fitting by pressure between truncated pyramid-shaped cavities and protuberances of a base and a lid respectively, the base having cells to house the individual pieces of fruit. The number and the size of cells depend on the characteristics of the strawberries that they must contain. The container may be separated into up to four sub-units by simple pulling along diagonal tear lines, and it has retracting handles on its sides to facilitate its transport, as well as a central orifice to thread the containers on a vertical rod in the point-of-sale and obtain a more attractive presentation.