Storage container
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users face poor usability when the number of remaining wet tissues in a storage container becomes small, requiring deep finger insertion to retrieve sheets.
Innovation Solution
A storage container with a detachable resin-molded bottom lid featuring an expanding/contracting part that can be transformed from a first state to a second state, allowing the bottom to be raised and facilitating easy sheet removal without compromising the container's hermetic seal.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the container maintains a fixed bottom structure, then the container structure is simple and easy to manufacture, but users cannot easily retrieve sheets when the number of remaining sheets is small
Solution Approach 1:
The bottom lid is designed with an expanding/contracting part that can dynamically change its protrusion height. When the number of sheets decreases, the bottom lid can be pressed downward to expand the expanding/contracting part, thereby raising the bottom surface and reducing the depth users need to insert their fingers to retrieve sheets. This dynamic adjustment resolves the contradiction between ease of operation and device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The height parameter of the bottom lid is made variable through the expanding/contracting part. By changing the protrusion height of the bottom lid (from a lower position when contracted to a higher position when expanded), the effective depth of the container is adjusted. This parameter change allows easy sheet retrieval when sheets are few, while maintaining structural simplicity through the integrally-molded resin construction.
2Reliability
If the bottom lid is made detachable and integrally-molded, then the container achieves hermetic sealing and ease of cleaning, but the manufacturing precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The bottom lid is designed with localized functional features including a recessed portion for pressing operations and an expanding/contracting part with specific geometric features. These local quality variations enable hermetic sealing at the interface between the bottom lid and container body, while the integrally-molded construction maintains manufacturing feasibility by incorporating these features into a single molding process.
Solution Approach 2:
The bottom lid integrates multiple functions into a single component: hermetic sealing, pressing mechanism support, and expanding/contracting functionality. By merging these functions into one integrally-molded resin part, the design achieves reliable sealing without requiring multiple precision-assembled components, thus balancing manufacturing precision requirements with sealing performance.
Data Source
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AI summary
A storage container is provided which allows a user to easily take out sheets from a dispensing opening when the number of sheets is small. A storage container 1 includes: a container body 2 including a top plate 3 where a dispensing opening 4 for taking out the sheets is provided, and an opening formed opposing the top plate; and a bottom lid 6 which is formed of an integrally-molded resin, is detachably mounted to the container body, and closes the opening. The bottom lid includes: a flat plate portion 55; and an expanding/contracting part 58 transformable from a first state where it protrudes from the flat plate portion up to a first height toward inside of the container body, to a second state where it protrudes from the flat plate portion up to a second height higher than the first height, toward inside of the container body.