Refrigerated Cabinet Access Door Bridge Geometry for Crack Resistance
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing double-walled plastic access doors for refrigerated cabinets are prone to cracking and breaking, particularly near the mounting sections where hinges engage, due to stress concentrations caused by external loads.
Innovation Solution
The access door design incorporates a bridge part with a primary section extending at a large angle greater than 90 degrees adjacent to the mounting section and a secondary section extending at a smaller angle, typically around 90 degrees, to distribute stress and maintain stiffness, reducing the risk of deterioration and breakage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If the bridge part extends perpendicular to the edge part to maximize stiffness, then the door construction has high stiffness and resistance to deformation, but stress concentrations occur near the mounting section causing cracks and breakage
Solution Approach 1:
The bridge part is designed with different geometric configurations in different regions: a first bridge part with a first angle (greater than 90 degrees) near the mounting section to reduce stress concentration, and a second bridge part with a second angle (closer to 90 degrees) in other regions to maximize stiffness. This local variation in geometry optimizes both strength and reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The angle of the bridge part relative to the edge part is varied as a geometric parameter to achieve different functional outcomes. By changing the angle from greater than 90 degrees near the mounting section to approximately 90 degrees in other sections, the design balances stress distribution and stiffness requirements.
2Ease of manufacture
If a single uniform bridge part design is used, then the manufacturing process is simple, but the door construction cannot simultaneously optimize both stiffness and stress distribution
Solution Approach 1:
The bridge part incorporates a first bridge part and a second bridge part with different geometric characteristics to simultaneously address stress distribution and stiffness requirements in different regions of the door construction.
Solution Approach 2:
The bridge part is divided into multiple segments (first bridge part and second bridge part) with different angular configurations, allowing each segment to perform its specific function while maintaining overall structural integrity.
Data Source
AI summary
An access door (1) for application in a refrigerated cabinet comprises a multi-walled plastic door construction of a sheet-like first wall (10) and a plane-parallel second wall (20). The walls each comprise all around an edge part (12,22) with which the walls are connected. One of the two walls has a central part (21) which lies offset relative to the edge part (22) and wherein the central part and the edge part are connected by a bridge part (23a,23b). The door construction has a mounting section (25) for mounting an adjusting member thereon in order to enable adjustment of the door construction in the refrigerated cabinet between a position closing the refrigerated cabinet and an open position. The bridge part (23a,23b) comprises a primary bridge part section (23a) which is adjacent to the mounting section (25) and extends at a first angle from the edge part and a secondary bridge part section (23b) which extends at a second angle from the edge part, wherein the second angle is smaller than the first angle.