Sterile Rapid Cooling Apparatus Using Segmented Flask Design
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for cooling boiled liquids are inefficient and non-sterile, requiring a long time to cool down to a safe temperature, and existing cooling devices are cumbersome, expensive, and difficult to clean.
Innovation Solution
A sterile apparatus comprising an external tank with internal cooling flasks positioned closely together, creating a narrow gap between them to form a large cooling space, where the boiled liquid is poured to rapidly cool down using a coolant, such as tap water, within the flasks.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If the parent places the feeding bottle with boiled water in a vessel filled with tap water to hasten cooling, then the cooling speed is improved, but the sterility of the cooled liquid deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The apparatus divides the cooling system into separate sealed cooling flasks containing coolant, isolated from the hot water in the tank. This segmentation allows rapid heat transfer while maintaining sterile separation between the coolant and the hot water being cooled.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a sterile barrier or membrane system that acts as an intermediary between the coolant and the hot water. This intermediary enables thermal energy transfer while preventing contamination, solving the contradiction between rapid cooling and sterility maintenance.
2Loss of time
If a beverage cooling device with several cooling portions assembled one into the other is used, then the cooling capability is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple cooling flasks into a single tank structure, where multiple flasks containing coolant are positioned within one external tank. This combining approach provides enhanced cooling capability while maintaining a simple, integrated structure that is easier to manufacture and clean compared to multiple separate assembled 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
The apparatus enables rapid cooling of hot liquids to a safe temperature within a short time while maintaining sterility, with easy access and cleaning of components, and can be made from materials like polypropylene, suitable for baby food preparation.
Implementation Method 1
The apparatus comprises several cooling flasks (3), at least three, positioned very close to one another within the external tank (2)... a very narrow gap (7) is left between each cooling flask (3) and the next cooling flask (3) adjacent to it... the coolant fluid in the cooling flasks (3) to quickly adsorb the heat
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus for cooling liquids that includes a tank that has two longitudinal walls, two lateral walls and a bottom, and cooling flasks that each of them has two longitudinal walls, two lateral walls and a bottom. The flasks are designed to contain coolant. The lateral walls and at least one longitudinal wall of each flask has at least one protrusion smaller than 2.5 millimeters. The flasks are designed to be set within the tank in such a way that the protrusions are attached to the longitudinal walls of the tank. The protrusions create a gap smaller than 2.5 millimeters between each two adjacent flasks and between the lateral walls of the flasks to the longitudinal walls of the tank. These gaps constitute a single cooling space. The total volume of the flasks is three times greater or more than the volume of the single cooling space.