Adjustable Plastic Clip for Knock-Down Container Panels
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current collapsible container clips, typically made of steel, face challenges such as high manufacturing costs, corrosion, and weight, while plastic clips lack resilience and durability under stress, leading to inefficiencies in securing and reusing wooden panels during transportation and handling.
Innovation Solution
A releasable plastic clip with adjustable engagement formations and a supporting gusset, featuring a stationary and displaceable section with a locking arm, provides a secure and tamper-proof mechanism to engage panels, addressing the limitations of traditional steel clips by using a geometric lock and enhanced material properties.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If steel clips are used to secure panels, then strength and durability are improved, but manufacturing cost and weight increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the material parameter from steel to plastic, specifically using polypropylene or similar polymers. This material substitution maintains sufficient mechanical strength for panel securing while dramatically reducing manufacturing cost, weight, and eliminating corrosion issues associated with steel clips
Solution Approach 2:
The clip design incorporates a composite structure combining plastic material with integrated steel reinforcement elements or steel inserts. This composite approach provides the strength and durability of steel where needed while using plastic for the main body to reduce cost and weight, creating a hybrid solution that balances multiple requirements
2Strength
If steel clips are used to secure panels, then strength and durability are improved, but weight increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the material parameter from steel to plastic, specifically using polypropylene or similar polymers. This material substitution maintains sufficient mechanical strength for panel securing while dramatically reducing manufacturing cost, weight, and eliminating corrosion issues associated with steel clips
3Ease of manufacture
If plastic clips are used to reduce cost and weight, then manufacturing cost and weight are improved, but resilience and durability under stress worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The clip design incorporates a composite structure combining plastic material with integrated steel reinforcement elements or steel inserts. This composite approach provides the strength and durability of steel where needed while using plastic for the main body to reduce cost and weight, creating a hybrid solution that balances multiple requirements
Solution Approach 2:
The clip is divided into functional segments: a plastic body for cost-effective molding and weight reduction, and strategically placed steel reinforcement zones for stress-bearing areas. This segmentation allows each material to be used where it provides the most benefit, optimizing both durability and cost
4Strength
If traditional steel clips are used, then durability is improved, but corrosion occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the material parameter from steel to plastic, specifically using polypropylene or similar polymers. This material substitution maintains sufficient mechanical strength for panel securing while dramatically reducing manufacturing cost, weight, and eliminating corrosion issues associated with steel clips
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a releasable clip for use in a knock-down structure, and more particularly but not exclusively, to a releasable plastic clip for use in securing panels of a knock-down structure, for example a collapsible container, to one another. The releasable clip includes two legs that extend away from one another, with the legs being connected at one end, and each leg having an opposite free end that terminates in a panel engagement formation. At least one of the panel engagement formations is an adjustable engagement formation that is adjustable between a locked position, in which the engagement formation is adapted to engage a securing aperture provided in a panel, and a release position, in which the engagement formation is adapted to be released from the securing aperture.