GatorCap
GatorCap
| School: | University of Florida |
| Team: | Leyton Kounlavong, Spencer Serrano, Taiun Doo, Dalena Nguyen |
Accessibility is Usability. GatorCap is designed so that everyday items give its user a mechanical advantage, allowing everyone a taste of Real Magic with ease.
Be it from age, injury or disability, a considerable portion of our population experience limited mobility, dexterity, or strength. Significant portions of regular Coca-Cola customers report hard-to-open bottles, identifying an issue and potential for improvement from the current bottle cap design.
The notch distinguishing GatorCap from traditional bottle caps is designed for objects to slot into and act as an extended moment arm with additional grip. A phone, keys, spoons and forks, the edge of a table, even a stick on the ground! Anything around you can be used
to twist oG the cap for a delicious swig, and to secure it close with confidence. What’s more, the notch acts as a perfect holder for your phone for even more enjoyment.
GatorCap can be implemented into current bottle manufacturing and filling operations with minimal tooling changes. Manufacturable through the same injection molding process, the one-piece, high-density-polyethylene material design retains recyclability minimizes production cost increases. Furthermore, the product integrity remains strong as the closure threads and inner geometry was left unchanged.
The GatorCap also functions as a smartphone holder which creates another use case into the life cycle of the product. This design feature was added to connect friends with CocaCola in an age of increased digitization. It must not be understated that the GatorCap significantly improves access to previously excluded individuals, while simultaneously adding new functionalities to an existing closure. In totality, these innovations represent a transformative step for consumer beverage industry in a way that will produce numerous benefits all parties involved.
