Variable Volume Dosing Device with Spindle Adjustment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing dosing closures for liquids lack the ability to provide a continuously variable and scalable dosing volume with easy adjustment and clear display of different volumes, while maintaining a simple design with minimal parts and ensuring reliable pouring from full to empty containers or hoses.
Innovation Solution
A dosing device with a spout attachment and a dosing control chamber that fills from empty to full, featuring a rotatable spindle with a rotary knob for adjusting the dosing piston's path, allowing for continuous adjustment of dosing volumes between a minimum and maximum, and enabling intuitive selection of dosing quantities through a scale marking system.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a variable adjustment of dosing volume is implemented using a limiter with helical web and rotary body, then the dosing quantity can be steplessly adjusted between minimum and maximum, but the device complexity increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the dosing volume adjustment function from the complex limiter-helical web-rotary body mechanism and implements it through a simpler alternative: a dosing chamber with variable volume defined by a movable dosing element and a simplified adjustment mechanism. This removes unnecessary components while preserving the core functionality of continuous dosing volume adjustment.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of adjusting the dosing volume by rotating a rotary body that moves a limiter along a helical path, the patent inverts the approach by using a movable dosing element that directly defines the dosing chamber volume. The adjustment is achieved by moving this element axially rather than through complex rotary motion, simplifying the mechanism.
2Adaptability or versatility
If a complex adjustment mechanism with multiple components is used to achieve continuous dosing volume adjustment, then versatile dosing control is possible, but the manufacturing cost and production complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the dosing chamber and the adjustment mechanism into a more integrated structure. The movable dosing element is directly associated with the dosing chamber, eliminating the need for separate limiters, helical webs, and rotary bodies. This consolidation reduces the number of parts to manufacture and assemble, lowering production costs while maintaining dosing control flexibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The movable dosing element serves multiple functions: it defines the dosing chamber volume, acts as a seal, and provides the adjustment interface. This multi-functionality reduces the need for additional specialized components, simplifying manufacturing and reducing costs while maintaining versatile dosing control.
3Device complexity
If the dosing control chamber is emptied from full to empty during pouring, then the dosing mechanism is simple, but the same dose is always dispensed without flexibility
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a dynamic dosing chamber volume that can be adjusted before each dosing cycle. The movable dosing element allows the chamber volume to be changed, enabling flexible dosing quantities. During pouring, the chamber is emptied from its current state, and the movable element can be repositioned for the next cycle, combining simplicity with adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the parameter of dosing chamber volume from a fixed value to a variable parameter that can be adjusted by moving the dosing element. This allows the same dosing mechanism to dispense different doses by simply changing the chamber volume parameter before each dosing cycle, maintaining mechanical simplicity while adding versatility.
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 allows for reliable and accurate dispensing of adjustable volumes, enabling doses larger than the closure's volume, with reduced complexity and weight, and lower production costs compared to prior solutions, ensuring foolproof operation and preventing clogging.
Implementation Method 1
the spindle engages with its thread with its end region in the threaded sections inside an adjustment sleeve
Data Source
AI summary
The dosing device is intended for a neck for pouring defined amounts from a container or hose. It consists of a spout attachment that can be screwed or pushed onto the neck, and that optionally can be closed by a separate lid and has a dosing control chamber (14) with variable volume. As a characterizing feature, this chamber fills up from empty when pouring. Said chamber is formed by the space between a control chamber limiter and the interior of a dosing piston (10) and is filled with liquid when pouring a dose, while liquid at (D1) flows down past the dosing piston (10) to the spout (3). Finally, the downwardly displaced dosing piston (10) closes the spout (3) when the control chamber (14) is full. The dose quantities to be poured are adjustable in that the path of the dosing piston (10) can be limited on its side facing the container or hose. The control chamber limiter is variably displaceable axially with respect to the dosing device into the equipped neck and can be held fixedly in any position.