Nozzle for a cleaning device
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cleaning devices require multiple nozzles of different shapes and sizes to effectively clean various surfaces, leading to manufacturing and storage challenges, as well as limitations in fitting into or around complex items.
Innovation Solution
A nozzle with a body made of a rigid material that becomes malleable when heated, featuring electrical conductors that close a circuit upon deformation, allowing localized heating to adjust the nozzle's shape to fit specific cleaning tasks without the need for multiple attachments.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If multiple nozzles of different shapes are manufactured and supplied, then the suitability for fitting all items to be cleaned is improved, but the device complexity and storage requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The nozzle body is designed with a material that can dynamically change its shape from rigid at room temperature to malleable at elevated temperatures. This dynamic property allows a single nozzle to adapt to different cleaning surfaces by deforming under heat, eliminating the need for multiple fixed-shape nozzles while maintaining versatility.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the temperature parameter of the nozzle body material to alter its physical properties. By heating the nozzle above room temperature, the material transitions from a rigid state to a malleable state, enabling shape adjustment. This parameter change allows one nozzle to perform the function of multiple nozzles with different shapes.
2Device complexity
If a single nozzle is used for all cleaning tasks, then the storage and manufacturing complexity is reduced, but the adaptability to fit various surfaces is worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The nozzle body material's temperature parameter is changed to transform its physical state from rigid to malleable. This allows a single nozzle to be heated and deformed into different shapes as needed, providing the adaptability of multiple nozzles while maintaining the simplicity of a single nozzle system.
Solution Approach 2:
The nozzle body material has the self-service capability of changing its own shape when heated. The material inherently possesses the property of becoming malleable at elevated temperatures, allowing it to self-adjust its shape without requiring external mechanical intervention or complex actuation mechanisms.
3Strength
If the nozzle material is kept rigid at all temperatures, then the structural strength is maintained, but the ability to deform and fit complex surfaces is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The temperature parameter of the nozzle material is selectively changed to achieve the desired balance between strength and deformability. At room temperature, the material maintains its rigid, strong state for normal handling and use. When heated above room temperature, the material becomes malleable, allowing deformation to fit complex surfaces, thus providing both strength and adaptability at different operational stages.
Solution Approach 2:
The nozzle undergoes periodic cycling between rigid and malleable states through temperature changes. During normal use, the nozzle is cool and rigid for structural strength. When shape adjustment is needed, the nozzle is heated to become malleable for deformation, then cooled to regain rigidity, creating a periodic transformation that alternates between these two states as required.
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
Enables flexible shape adjustment to fit various cleaning surfaces and crevices, reducing the need for multiple nozzle types and improving cleaning effectiveness by allowing the nozzle to mold itself to the item being cleaned.
Implementation Method 1
the electrical conductors at said deformed region become closed circuit so as to be able to conduct an electric current at said deformed region, thereby heating said substance at said deformed region
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
AI summary
A nozzle (10) for a cleaning device has a body (14) and a plurality of electrical conductors (18). The body (14) is formed of or contains a substance (16) that is relatively rigid at room temperature and that is relatively malleable at a temperature above room temperature. The electrical conductors (18) are in thermal contact with the substance (16). The electrical conductors (18) are arranged so as to be normally open circuit. When a region of the body (14) is deformed, at least some of the electrical conductors (18) at the deformed region become closed circuit so as to be able to conduct an electric current at the deformed region. This heats the substance (16) at the deformed region to allow the substance (16) at the deformed region to be further deformed to fit an item to be cleaned or to fit around an item during cleaning.