Aidapt Ring Pull Can Opener for Users with Weak Grip or Limited Dexterity for Elderly and Arthritis Suffers Aid

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People with dementia often experience difficulties with eating and drinking, although everyone will be different. Fraze had some experience in working with metal, including aluminium, which clearly helped. However he still encountered problems along the way. He had to figure out how to cut an opening into a can top so that it was easy to remove but still robust enough to hold against the can’s internal pressure. After spending time designing and testing different models, the solution apparently came to him during a sleepless night – to use the material in the lid itself to form a rivet holding the tab in place. Fact: After it bought the licence for the new ring pull design in 1963, Pittsburgh’s Iron City Brewing Company’s sales increased by 233% in a year How: The idea for the ring pull came about while Ermal Cleon Fraze was having a picnic and couldn’t open his beer can after forgetting his opener Speech and language therapists are experts in the mechanics of eating, drinking and swallowing. They will be able to advise you if you experience physical difficulty in these actions. Your GP can refer you to your local speech and language therapy service, or you may be able to refer yourself.

You may be provided with equipment and services as a preventative measure, before a needs assessment is done. If, on assessment, your needs are high enough to qualify for help from the local authority, they will then look at your income and savings to see whether you will need to pay towards any future services you receive. These services might include disability equipment including alarms or telecare, adaptations to your home, help from a carer, or the delivery of meals or residential care. Since its amendment in 1975 into a stay-on tab, the design of the ring pull has altered very little, as manufacturers and consumers alike remain satisfied with the blueprint. Increasing numbers of food tins are now produced with ring pull tops, to enable people to access the contents with greater ease. And today the device is used on other containers, such as tennis ball tubes. Handheld tin openers may be manually or electrically operated, and may have features such as larger or contoured handles. Electric handheld openers may be used one-handed. Freestanding tin openers are mains powered and are operated either one-handed or hands-free. Screw lid openers grip the lid to enable easier opening. They may have a handle which provides extra leverage for turning, or may be made of slip-resistant material. Some have a fixed gripping surface, others have an adjustable length band which needs to be tightened around the lid. Battery operated screw lid openers automatically grip both the jar and the lid, and turn the lid to open the jar. Some openers are designed to open childproof safety caps. Unlike some we tested, the magnet that grabs the tin lid also works well, meaning that you don't have to go dipping into the can with your fingers to get the lid out.Drinks brands such as Coca-Cola have latched on to the ring pull with great enthusiasm. The beverage giant currently distributes 1.6 billion global servings per day, most of them in cans and bottles. The ring pull has transformed the distribution of Coca-Cola and other drinks companies – including most beer brands – offering a hassle-free way for consumers to open cans.

For all their convenience, the original pull-tabs created a large amount of controversy, namely for their environmental impact. For 10 years people opened cans by ripping off the pull-tabs and discarding them. The discarded tabs were a danger to wild animals, which suffered death from ingesting the metal pieces. There were also cases of people choking on the tabs, having dropped them into their can by mistake. The stay-on tab solved this dilemma and is the opening device we know today. What does the ring pull market look like today? Difficulties with initiating or carrying out movement may occur in later stages. This might affect all actions required to get food to the mouth and then to eat it. Verbal prompting and physical assistance may be needed. Finger foods or less ‘messy’ foods might help. As dementia progresses, swallowing difficulties (dysphagia) become more common. If a person has difficulty chewing and swallowing, you are advised to seek an appointment with a speech and language therapist. Having softer foods might help. It's very effective at its core job of opening tins. They attach easily to the device and are held securely. Eating and drinking both involve many different decisions, actions and movements. They are complex activities and can be disrupted in many ways. For anyone, whether able bodied or not, it is best to be sitting upright in a well-supported position. You should be sat close to the table or tray, which should be roughly at the height of your elbow. This means that the table can be used to support your forearms if required.Fraze’s first version used a lever that pierced a hole in the can but resulted in sharp and sometimes dangerous edges and led to a number of complaints from customers who had cut fingers and lips on the device. He then set about creating the pull-tab.