Spout Closure Projections for Secure Sealing Feedback
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing spout units face issues with caps becoming loose after sealing and lack a mechanism to recognize the completion of closing the spout.
Innovation Solution
The spout unit design includes a cap and spout with specific projections and screw threads, where the cap projection crosses the spout projection during closure, creating a clicking sensation and ensuring secure sealing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a conventional cap and spout design is used, then the sealing function is provided, but the cap becomes loose after sealing and there is no mechanism to recognize complete closure
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism through the interaction between the cap projection and spout projection. When the cap is fully closed, the projections engage to produce a tactile clicking sensation, providing immediate feedback to the user that closure is complete. This eliminates uncertainty about sealing status without requiring additional complex components.
Solution Approach 2:
The cap and spout projections are designed to automatically engage and lock when the cap is twisted to the closed position. The geometric configuration of the projections ensures that they naturally interlock at the correct orientation, providing self-verifying closure without requiring external verification mechanisms or additional user actions.
2Ease of operation
If the cap projection and spout projection are positioned to cross during closure, then tactile feedback is provided indicating complete closure, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The closure verification function is segmented into two independent components: the cap projection on the cap and the spout projection on the spout. This segmentation allows each component to be simple in structure while their interaction provides the complex verification function. The projections are separate elements that engage through relative rotation, avoiding the need for a single complex verification mechanism.
Solution Approach 2:
The cap projection and spout projection are designed with asymmetric geometries that only match at the correct closed position. The cap projection has a specific shape that fits into or alongside the spout projection only when the cap is rotated to the precise closure orientation, preventing over-tightening or incomplete closure while maintaining simple projection structures.
Data Source
AI summary
A spout unit includes a cap with a cap projection and a spout with a spout projection. When the cap rotates in a closing direction, the cap projection crosses the spout projection. When the spout fixed to a package body is observed downward in the vertical direction, the spout projection is in a left region or a right region. The left and right regions are demarcated by a first line and a second line, and share a reference line orthogonal to a center axis of the spout and extending in the long direction of the package body. The first line is the reference line rotated at an angle of 50° about the center axis in the closing direction, and the second line is the reference line rotated at an angle of 50° about the center axis in a direction opposite to the closing direction.