Coffee Time Challenge - January

UK engineers are particularly good at solving problems, but also seeing ways of making things better. Despite huge improvements to hygiene and food packaging technology, the knock on effect is packaging that is extremely difficult to get through. In particular people often struggle to remove the lid of a jar. Opening a jar is something most of us take for granted but struggle with at sometime or another. But the problem is amplified for elderly and disabled people that struggle with the vacuum formed seals that fasten lids in place. And the forces needed to twist of some of the most stubborn lids can be as high as 5 or 6Nm. And for many, this is beyond their capability. The Challenge Our challenge this month is to come up with a product that opens jars, which is small enough and cheap enough to be appealing to the mass market and simple enough to use that elderly and disabled people would be able to easily operate the device. Similar gadgets have already come to market such as mechanical can openers, and they show that there is a market for such devices. But there are currently few devices that proficiently solve the problem. Many are prohibitively large and expensive significantly reducing there general appeal. You should come up with a way of replicating what human hands do when they open a jar. The mechanism should grip the lid and jar and apply a steady twisting force until the lid is removed. And like the human hand the mechanism needs to tighten its grip if it is about to slip. The device should be simple to use, not take up too much room and be aimed at the senior market and people that struggle opening jars, with possible appeal to the wider population as a gadget. It should also be low cost and that means a minimum number of parts. The solution uses a simple, well know, although slightly modified mechanism - which solves the problem elegantly and will be revealed in the February issue of Eureka. In the mean time, see if can come up with anything better.