Weighted One-Way Door for Humane Animal Trap Stability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing enclosure animal traps are inhumane as they often result in stressful death by asphyxiation and have issues with animal escapes due to trap overturns and gnawing through plastic doors, making them unsuitable for many users.
Innovation Solution
A humane animal trap design featuring a gnaw-proof, weighted one-way door made of hard materials like metal or polycarbonate, with enlarged lower portions and airflow apertures to prevent escape and reduce stress, ensuring the trap is less susceptible to overturns and allows for easy release of the animal.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Weight of moving object
If a light thermoplastic material is used for the trap door, then the trap is lightweight and easy to manufacture, but the rodent can gnaw through the door or use it as a paw-hold to open the door
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies composite materials by combining a hard, gnaw-resistant material (such as metal or hard plastic) for the door with the lighter thermoplastic enclosure body. This creates a composite structure where the door provides gnaw resistance while the overall trap remains relatively lightweight and manufacturable.
2Ease of manufacture
If a simple plastic enclosure trap is used, then the trap is easy to manufacture and use, but the trapped animal may overturn the trap causing escape
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the counterweight principle by adding weight to the door assembly (through heavier material or added weights) to create a stable center of gravity that prevents the trap from being overturned by a thrashing rodent, while maintaining simple enclosure trap construction.
3Ease of manufacture
If a solid plastic door is used, then the door is easy to manufacture, but the trapped animal experiences stress and may die by asphyxiation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies porous materials by incorporating air holes or a mesh pattern into the door structure. This allows airflow through the door to prevent asphyxiation and reduce animal stress, while still maintaining the door's structural integrity and ease of manufacture through standard molding techniques.
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 trap effectively prevents animal escapes and reduces stress by using a hard, weighted door with airflow apertures, ensuring the animal is caught and released in good health without inhumane conditions.
Implementation Method 1
providing a door made of a comparatively heavy material and/or having an enlarged lower portion as shown in FIG. 1, in conjunction with a trap enclosure made of a light plastic material, functions to increase significantly the inertia of the animal trap as a whole and particularly to lower its center of gravity, thereby making the trap substantially less susceptible to be overturned by the thrashing of a rodent caught within the trap
Implementation Method 2
increase significantly the inertia of the animal trap as a whole and particularly to lower its center of gravity
Implementation Method 3
use of a door material that is appreciably harder than the ordinary thermoplastic materials currently employed in injection-molded, enclosure-type mouse traps precludes a trapped rodent from successfully gnawing even the smallest aperture into an edge of the door
Implementation Method 4
as opposed to the enclosure traps of the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,787,170, in which the trapped animal may be made to expire by asphyxiation, the current embodiment comprises apertures in the upper portion of the door sufficient to ensure ample airflow into the trap, thereby reducing the level of stress of a trapped animal until its release
Data Source
AI summary
There is described an improved one-way door for a humane animal trap of the type comprising a box-shaped enclosure having an opening at one end, and a hinged one-way door adapted to close said opening and also to swing freely upward into the enclosure to permit entry into the enclosure by an animal, then to fall back under the force of gravity to a closed position that traps the animal within the enclosure. The improved trap door has an upper portion comprising apertures sufficient to enable ample airflow into the trap and a weighted lower portion that speeds the drop of the door and that also lowers the center of gravity of the door, and that of the trap as a whole, and thereby functions to enhance the stability of the trap to reduce trap overturns and animal escapes. The apertures in the upper portion of the door provide the animal with an ample supply of air to reduce the stress it is subjected to prior to release. The metal and/or hard plastic composition of the door ensures that the animal will not gnaw a hole in the door to facilitate its escape.