Aircraft Door Lock Machine Element for Bolt Standardization
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing door lock systems for airplanes require a large range of bolt lengths to accommodate doors of various thicknesses, leading to administrative and financial inefficiencies, and there is a risk of antenna effects due to unsealed nuts, which compromises electrical impermeability.
Innovation Solution
A door lock system where a machine element is inserted through the underlying structure to engage a bolt, allowing the bolt length to be constant across varying door thicknesses, with an internal thread extending through the structure to form a joint, ensuring electrical impermeability and load transfer capabilities.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a nut is fixedly mounted on the underlying structure to lock the door, then the door can be securely locked, but there is a risk of antenna effects occurring in the bolt due to lack of electrical impermeability
Solution Approach 1:
A machine element acts as an intermediary component between the bolt and the underlying structure. This machine element is inserted through the opening in the underlying structure and engages with the bolt, while its portion inside the structure provides electrical shielding to prevent antenna effects, thus maintaining both locking reliability and electrical impermeability
2Object-affected harmful factors
If the machine element is inserted sufficiently far through the underlying structure to engage the bolt internally, then electrical impermeability is ensured, but the complexity of the machine element increases
Solution Approach 1:
The machine element is designed to perform multiple functions simultaneously: it provides mechanical engagement with the bolt through its internal thread, maintains electrical impermeability by extending sufficiently into the underlying structure, and enables a standardized bolt length to accommodate varying door thicknesses. This multi-functionality reduces overall system complexity despite the extended insertion requirement
3Productivity
If a standardized bolt length is used for all door thicknesses, then administrative and financial efficiency improves, but the machine element must be designed to accommodate varying door thicknesses
Solution Approach 1:
The machine element is designed with a dynamic insertion depth through the underlying structure. By adjusting how far the machine element protrudes outside the structure versus how far it extends inside, the system can accommodate doors of various thicknesses while using a standardized bolt length, thus achieving administrative efficiency without sacrificing adaptability
Data Source
AI summary
A door lock for locking a door to an underlying structure. A machine element disposed in connection to a through opening in the underlying structure is arranged so as to engage a bolt that is insertable into a through opening in the door. The machine element is inserted through the opening in the underlying structure to a position at which the openings in the door and the underlying structure form, together with the part of the machine element that extends outside of the underlying structure, a length that is longer than the bolt length, while at the same time an internal thread on the machine element extends sufficiently far through the underlying structure that, with the joint mounted, it engages the bolt to create the joint. Also, a method for manufacturing the door lock.