Removable-Handle Square Cookware for Compact Nesting Storage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional cookware items, such as pots and pans with fixed handles, are often large and cumbersome, making them difficult to store efficiently in limited spaces like apartments, boats, or caravans.
Innovation Solution
A cookware assembly with a square or rectangular design featuring a handle that can be selectively engaged at attachment locations on the rim, allowing for nesting of vessels of different sizes, and a lid with a central handle and hollow region to prevent interference during storage, along with adjustable jaw elements for secure attachment and sealing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If traditional cookware with fixed handles is used, then the cookware is functional for cooking, but it becomes large and cumbersome making it difficult to store efficiently in limited spaces
Solution Approach 1:
The handle is divided into separate modular components that can be attached to or removed from the cookware vessel. The attachment location on the rim includes a relief feature that receives a jaw element, allowing the handle to be segmented into a body portion and a separate attachment mechanism. This segmentation enables the cookware to be stored in a compact nested configuration while still providing a complete functional handle when needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The handle transitions from a static fixed component to a dynamic removable component. The attachment mechanism includes movable jaw elements that can engage with the relief feature in the rim, allowing the handle to be dynamically attached or detached. This dynamic characteristic enables the handle to adapt between providing full functionality during use and being removed or repositioned for compact storage.
2Volume of moving object
If multiple cookware vessels are stored together, then storage efficiency improves, but handle interference between nested vessels prevents proper nesting
Solution Approach 1:
The cookware vessels are designed with square or rectangular cross-sections that enable them to nest within one another like nested dolls. The handles are positioned and dimensioned so that when one vessel is placed inside another, the handle of the inner vessel fits within the hollow region of the lid or body of the outer vessel, eliminating handle interference and enabling efficient nesting of multiple pieces.
Solution Approach 2:
The handle design incorporates a hollow region in the lid that provides vertical clearance for the handle of a nested vessel. By utilizing the vertical dimension and creating a hollow space above the rim level, the design allows handles of nested vessels to coexist without interference, transforming a two-dimensional placement problem into a three-dimensional solution.
3Reliability
If the handle is permanently fixed to the vessel, then attachment reliability is high, but the cookware becomes cumbersome and difficult to store
Solution Approach 1:
The attachment location on the rim is pre-formed with a relief feature during manufacturing, creating a prepared receptacle for the handle's jaw element. This preliminary preparation ensures that when the handle is attached, the jaw element fits precisely into the relief feature, providing reliable attachment without requiring complex assembly steps or additional fastening operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The handle is extracted from being a permanently integrated component and made into a removable attachment. The attachment mechanism uses a jaw element that engages with the relief feature but can be detached, allowing the handle to be taken out or repositioned. This extraction of permanence enables the handle to be removed or reconfigured for compact storage while maintaining secure attachment when in use.
Data Source
AI summary
A cookware assembly or set comprising or including at least one cookware vessel of a substantially square peripheral exterior and interior form when viewed in plan, wherein the vessel has an attachment location on at least one of the four sides, the attachment location being a relief in the vessel's rim suitable for handle engagement, and a handle selectively engageable at the or any one of the attachment locations, the handle with both proximal and distal end regions having a pair of jaw elements at the proximal region for facilitating engagement to an attachment location such that a first jaw of the jaw pair locates substantially inside the vessel and a second jaw of the jaw pair locates substantially outside of the vessel, and a lid able to fit on the cookware vessel and to close, or at least substantially close, the cookware vessel.