Trapezoidal Locking Mechanism for Misaligned Container Sealing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing food container locking mechanisms often fail to securely engage due to misalignment during automated packaging, leading to container openings and product loss during shipping and handling.
Innovation Solution
A locking mechanism featuring trapezoidal prism shaped receiving and insertion components with integrally formed locking structures, allowing for secure engagement over a wide range of misalignments, ensuring the container remains locked during packaging, shipping, and display.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If tight fitting interlocking structures are used to provide a secure lock, then locking reliability is improved, but alignment sensitivity increases causing failure during automated packaging
Solution Approach 1:
The locking mechanism employs flexible deformation of the insertion component and receiving component to dynamically adapt to misalignments. The insertion component can deflect and rotate within the receiving component, allowing the locking structures to engage even when initial alignment is imperfect, thus resolving the contradiction between secure locking and alignment sensitivity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the geometric parameters of the locking structures by using non-congruent trapezoidal shapes where the insertion component has smaller dimensions than the receiving component. This parameter difference creates tolerance zones that accommodate misalignment while maintaining secure engagement, balancing locking reliability with reduced alignment precision requirements
2Reliability
If tight fitting interlocking structures are used to ensure secure locking, then container sealing is improved, but device complexity increases making alignment difficult in automated processes
Solution Approach 1:
The locking mechanism is segmented into distinct functional elements: the insertion component with its locking protrusions, the receiving component with its locking recesses, and the flexible deformation capability. This segmentation allows each element to perform its specific function independently, simplifying the overall alignment process while maintaining secure sealing through the coordinated action of these modular components
Data Source
AI summary
A locking apparatus has a receiving component that includes outer sidewalls extending upward from a first surface to form a raised portion, the raised portion having a receiving surface within a periphery defined by the outer sidewalls, and inner sidewalls extending downward from the receiving surface to form a cavity within the raised portion, the cavity having a cross-sectional area that decreases in proportion to the downward extension of the inner sidewalls, and a first locking structure. The locking apparatus also has an insertion component that includes sidewalls extending upward from a second surface and defining a cross-sectional area that decreases in proportion to the upward extension of the sidewalls, and also includes a second locking structure that is operatively associated with the first locking structure so that when the insertion component is inserted into the receiving component the first locking structure and the second locking structure interlock.