Touchless Dispenser Sensor Alignment for Rapid Successive Dispensing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing touchless personal hygiene product dispensers face issues such as delayed dispensing, inaccurate hand sensing, and product wastage due to the location of sensors and pumps, which can confuse users and lead to inefficiency, especially in high-volume applications like schools and public areas.
Innovation Solution
A touchless automatic dispensing station with a reservoir located below the dispensing stations, featuring a peristaltic pump system and sensors aligned with the dispensing path to immediately detect hands and dispense a precise quantity of product, allowing for rapid and accurate dispensing of liquid personal hygiene products, including modular configurations for various applications and user heights.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If the reservoir and pump are located above the dispensing nozzle to use gravity for feeding the product, then energy consumption is reduced, but the sensor cannot be positioned in the dispensing path, causing delayed and inaccurate detection
Solution Approach 1:
The patent repositions the reservoir from above to below the dispensing nozzle, changing the spatial dimension of the system. This allows the sensor to be positioned in the dispensing path while the pump remains above the nozzle for gravity-assisted operation, resolving the conflict between energy efficiency and detection accuracy
Solution Approach 2:
The patent inverts the conventional arrangement by placing the reservoir below rather than above the dispensing mechanism. This inversion enables the sensor to be positioned in the dispensing path without compromising the gravity-fed operation, simultaneously achieving accurate detection and energy efficiency
2Device complexity
If the sensor is positioned beside the dispensing path to detect hands, then the reservoir and pump can be located above the nozzle, but this creates confusion for users and leads to product wastage
Solution Approach 1:
By moving the reservoir to a lower dimension (below the dispensing path), the patent creates space for the sensor to be positioned within the dispensing path itself. This eliminates the confusion for users and ensures accurate product delivery, reducing wastage
Solution Approach 2:
The sensor positioned in the dispensing path provides advance detection of the user's hand, allowing the system to prepare for dispensing. This preliminary action ensures the product is dispensed at the right moment, preventing both premature and delayed dispensing that lead to wastage
3Reliability
If a piston pump is used to dispense discrete quantities of product, then product leakage is prevented, but the reciprocating action requires a stroke to draw product in and a second stroke to discharge it, causing delay
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from a reciprocating piston pump to a rotary pump mechanism. This dynamic change allows continuous rotation with product intake and discharge occurring in different phases of the rotation, eliminating the need for separate intake and discharge strokes and significantly reducing dispensing delay
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the operational parameters of the pump from reciprocating motion to rotary motion. This parameter change maintains the discrete quantity dispensing capability while improving the speed by eliminating the back-and-forth stroke cycle, achieving both reliability and speed
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 solution ensures efficient and accurate dispensing of personal hygiene products, reducing user dissatisfaction and product wastage by aligning sensors with the dispensing path, enabling rapid and successive dispensing, and accommodating different user heights and applications.
Implementation Method 1
a peristaltic pump operable in a prolonged priming mode to create a partial vacuum condition within the enclosed liquid path to draw the liquid personal hygiene product from the reservoir up through the enclosed liquid path into the pump
Implementation Method 2
create a partial vacuum condition within the enclosed liquid path to draw the liquid personal hygiene product from the reservoir up through the enclosed liquid path into the pump
Implementation Method 3
signal emitting devices with a sensor that detects a reflected portion of the emitted signal
Data Source
AI summary
A dispensing station apparatus, system, and method for liquid personal hygiene product, including, but not limited to, liquid (including gel) soap, sanitizer, disinfectant and/or cleanser, such as for sanitizing, disinfecting or cleaning one's hands, and, more particularly, that is touchlessly automatically operable to dispense a discrete quantity of the liquid personal hygiene product responsive to sensed presence of a person's hand along a predetermined dispensing path, including rapidly in succession responsive to placement of a succession of hands placed in the path. The apparatus can optionally be modular, to enable configuring to include one or more dispensing stations at multiple positions and heights on a housing of the apparatus, and it can be overall height adjustable, and can include a variety of accessories, including personal protection shielding between the stations, and dispensers for gloves, masks, tissues, etc.