Portable Animal Loading Chute with Movable Side Walls
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing portable animal loading chutes are not adaptable to load animals into both high and low-floored semi-trailers efficiently, as they require complex and bulky designs to adjust side walls and floors independently, leading to potential animal escape attempts due to misalignment gaps.
Innovation Solution
A portable animal loading chute with a chute floor and side walls that can move upwardly and downwardly, featuring ground wheels and tiltable supports to adjust the discharge end height, and movable confinement panels to align with different vehicle heights, preventing escape attempts by closing triangular spaces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If the side walls are fixed at a specific angle to match a particular vehicle height, then the alignment with that vehicle is improved, but the adaptability to different vehicle heights deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The side walls are made movable relative to the base through telescopic or hinged mechanisms, allowing their angle and position to be dynamically adjusted. This enables the same chute to achieve proper alignment with both high-floored semi-trailers and low-floored trailers by changing the side wall configuration rather than being fixed at a single angle.
Solution Approach 2:
The side walls are divided into multiple sections or segments that can be independently positioned. This segmentation allows each section to be adjusted to different angles, enabling the chute to adapt to various vehicle heights while maintaining proper alignment at each height level.
2Manufacturing precision
If the floor and side walls are adjusted independently to match different vehicle heights, then the alignment precision is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The adjustment mechanisms for the side walls and floor are combined into a single integrated system. When the base is tilted or positioned at different heights, both the side walls and floor move together as a unified structure, eliminating the need for separate independent adjustment mechanisms and reducing overall complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The base structure serves multiple functions: it supports the entire chute assembly, provides the adjustment mechanism for changing heights, and coordinates the movement of both the floor and side walls simultaneously. This multi-functionality reduces the number of separate components needed.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the entire chute moves upwardly and downwardly to adapt to different vehicle heights, then the adaptability is improved, but the transport height and bulkiness increase
Solution Approach 1:
The chute employs a telescopic or collapsible design where the side walls can be raised and lowered relative to the base. This dynamic configuration allows the chute to achieve the necessary height for loading onto semi-trailers when needed, while collapsing to a compact form for transport and storage, thereby reducing the transport height and overall bulkiness.
Data Source
AI summary
A portable animal loading chute includes a floor and side walls for transferring animals from the ground to a higher semi-trailer and smaller lower trailer for transportation. The whole chute including both the base and side walls move upwardly and downwardly to the height of the vehicle. What we did is make the angle of the loading chute is designed at half way between both heights so that a triangular gap is formed as the end faces of the side walls are not vertical and do not meet the vertical walls at the ground and trailer. Thus a small rectangular panel is mounted at each end of each side wall that can pivot to adjust to give the final required angle for to meet the vertical walls at the respective height.