How A Simple Soap dispenser works? | FIGHT CORONA VIRUS | HANDWASH MECHANISM

Washing our hands has become very important during the current pandemic. Most of us use a simple soap dispenser. But have you ever wondered how a simple soap dispenser works? How are they able to almost magically pull soap out of the box/reservoir and into your hands with just a simple press? Let’s find out on this blog.

Normal Soap dispensers come in many forms But at home you probably have one of these . In these kinds of soap dispensers , the idea is to pull the soap out of a reservoir and into your hands with just the push of a button.

So simply put, there has to be a way to work against gravity. Now there are a few different ways you can achieve this. To move something against gravity, you either need to push it up , pull it up, or a combination of both.

As you might have guessed, in the dispenser we showed you, soap is pulled up. But before we get into what causes this pulling force, let’s look at the different components of a soap dispenser.

The most important include a tube, a small ball, a spring which connects to the ball, piston, a valve, and cap 

 Now let’s see how a soap dispenser actually works. Here Im going to take the top portion of the soap dispenser where the entire mechanism actually is and I also have some colored water.

To simplify things I am going to break it down into two steps. The first is when i push the cap down, the second is when I release the cap.To simplify it we use colored water/glass. Now, if you push the cap down, there are a couple of things that happen.

First the small ball goes and sits firmly at the beginning of the tubing, effectively blocking the air from going into the reservoir). The second thing that happens is that theres a piston thats attached to the cap and when Ipush the cap down, the piston moves down, which opens a valve at the top of the system.

So now that basically means that there is a pathway between the top portion of the system and the atmosphere As the cap is being compressed, the air in the tube is forced out through the cap. Initially that’s air and later that’s soap.

Coming to the second phase- when I release the cap. Again, a couple of things happen. First, the ball is now free (the ball that was lodged between the junctions) to move up and the piston goes back to its top position and closes the valve.

When the valve is closed at the top, that means no air can enter back into the system through the cap. So if you remember, during the compression phase, whatever air was in the top part of the system was expelled out, and now because of the valve being closed as the piston moves up, there is a slight vacuum that still remains in the top part of the system and this vacuum is EXACTLY what causes the soap to be pulled up into the top part of the system.

SO just to show you a little demonstration here, Im putting my system into the colored water. Initially when I push the cap down, air escapes from the system and no soap comes up. But when I release the cap, the soap comes up because of the vacuum created in the top part of the system Kushal: So that’s the basic mechanism behind the soap dispenser.

But wait! Like we told you, when you press the cap, the soap comes into the tubing. But it stays there even after you release it. Why doesn’t the soap fall down? You might have seen this trick many times with a straw where you suck a fluid nto the straw and quickly cover the top of the straw with your finger and the liquid inside the straw stays where it is and it doesn’t fall back down.

Simply put, the pull created by the partial low pressure between your finger and the straw balances gravity and keeps the fluid in place That’s exactly what’s happening in the soap dispenser as well.

The vacuum created when the cap goes back up keeps the soap from falling back into the reservoir.  Isn’t that an ingenious mechanism! With just the push of a cap you are effectively defying gravity at home everyday.

Now a very similar principle is used in many places. You might have seen some hand pumps used to pull water out of the ground or even the spray bottles that you see in barber shops or use to disinfect your house use a very similar principle.

We’re all stuck at home during this lockdown period and there are hidden gems all around us, so maybe it’s a good chance for us to observe the little things and share what we’ve found either in the comment section or with your friends and peers.

In the end, With the development of life, more and more people begin to use automatic soap dispensers.  

It can be installed on the wall and easily use, if you are interest pls contact us for more details.