Accessory Mount With Retractable Grips for Multi-Device Fit
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing accessory mounting devices for vehicles like bicycles and motorcycles often require separate mounting solutions for various secondary items, such as GPS units and mobile devices, which can be cumbersome and lack versatility in accommodating different sizes and orientations.
Innovation Solution
A compact, ring-shaped accessory mounting device with movable grips and a central elastomer/plastic shim, featuring extension sliders and compression springs, allowing for adjustable grip positions and orientations to securely hold accessories of different sizes and types, including the option to rotate for landscape or portrait orientations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If a rigid single-piece mounting device is used, then structural strength is improved, but adaptability to different accessory sizes and orientations deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The mounting device is divided into a rigid main body portion and movable gripping portions that can independently adjust. The gripping portions include extension sliders that move along guide rails, allowing the device to adapt to different accessory sizes while the rigid main body maintains structural strength.
Solution Approach 2:
The mounting device incorporates movable gripping portions that can dynamically adjust their position and orientation. The extension sliders enable the gripping portions to extend and retract, providing adaptability to different accessory dimensions while maintaining a compact form when not in use.
2Adaptability or versatility
If separate mounting devices are used for different accessories, then specialization for each accessory is improved, but device complexity and number of components worsens
Solution Approach 1:
The mounting device is designed as a universal platform with a rigid main body portion that can accommodate multiple types of accessories. The movable gripping portions with extension sliders provide adjustable clamping force and positioning, allowing a single device to securely mount various accessories such as GPS units, mobile devices, and cameras without requiring separate specialized mounts.
3Ease of operation
If the mounting device maintains extended grip positions, then accessibility to accessories is improved, but volume when not in use worsens
Solution Approach 1:
The gripping portions are designed to be movable rather than fixed, allowing them to extend to accessible positions when accessories are mounted and retract to a compact configuration when not in use. The extension sliders move along guide rails within the main body portion, enabling the device to transition between extended and retracted states.
Solution Approach 2:
The movable gripping portions are nested within the main body portion when retracted, with the extension sliders and gripping elements stored inside the housing. This nesting arrangement minimizes the volume of the mounting device when no accessory is mounted, while still providing full extension capability when needed.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Provides a versatile and secure mounting solution for various accessories, accommodating different sizes and orientations, while minimizing volume when not in use, enhancing user convenience and compatibility with diverse devices.
Implementation Method 1
the accessory mounting device further comprises compression springs located within the main body portion and aligned in parallel with the extension sliders, the compression springs configured to inwardly bias the spines towards the first position
Implementation Method 2
the shim comprising at least one rib on the outer surface of the shim, aligned around at least part of the circumference of the shim, the main body portion further having at least one channel on the inner surface corresponding to the at least one rib, the rib locating therein in use
Data Source
AI summary
An accessory mounting device includes a main body portion configured to connect around a bar or similar in use, and a pair of mounting grips configured to movably connect to the main body from a first position against the body and a second position away from the main body portion, the grips in the second position configured to grip and hold a secondary accessory in position on the mounting device.