Articulatable Joint Pad with Segmented Flexing Lines
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Protective garments for firefighters and emergency workers often have stiff knee, elbow, or shoulder pads due to multiple layers, which can unduly stress the wearer, particularly when bending at articulatable joints.
Innovation Solution
A wearable pad for articulatable joints, such as knees, elbows, or shoulders, with strategically sewn flexing lines and layers that define central and lateral regions, allowing for flexible movement by reducing stress on the wearer, constructed from fabric layers including abrasion-resistant and thermal materials.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If protective garments have plural layers including outer shells and insulative linings, then protection and insulation are improved, but stiffness increases causing undue stress on the wearer
Solution Approach 1:
The pad is divided into multiple layers (outer shell, intermediate layer, insulative lining) that can move relative to each other through defined flexing lines. This segmentation allows each layer to contribute to protection while the flexing lines enable independent movement, resolving the contradiction between protection and flexibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The pad has different structural properties in different regions: the central region has multiple flexing lines for high flexibility during bending, while the lateral regions have fewer flexing lines maintaining structural integrity. This local differentiation allows the pad to be protective where needed and flexible where movement is required.
2Reliability
If protective garments have plural layers including outer shells and insulative linings, then protection and insulation are improved, but the garment becomes stiffer causing stress on articulatable joints
Solution Approach 1:
The pad is segmented into multiple layers connected by flexing lines that allow relative movement. This segmentation enables the pad to accommodate joint movement without transmitting excessive stress to the wearer, while maintaining protective coverage from the outer shell and insulation from the lining.
Solution Approach 2:
The pad changes its effective stiffness parameter dynamically through the flexing lines. When the joint is stationary, the layers remain relatively fixed providing protection. When the joint bends, the flexing lines allow the layers to shift relative to each other, changing the pad's mechanical properties to reduce stress on the wearer.
Data Source
AI summary
A pad, such as a knee, elbow, or shoulder pad, is wearable over an articulatable joint involving an arm of a wearer or a leg of a wearer and is constructed so as to define two flexing lines extending between an upper edge of the pad and a lower edge of the pad, which flexing lines define a central region of the pad and two lateral regions of the pad, so as to define a flexing line spaced from the central region and extending through each of the lateral regions, and so as to define plural flexing lines spaced from the upper and lower edges and from one another and extending across the central region, between the lateral regions. The pad comprises plural layers, which are sewn so as to define the flexing lines, and at least some of those layers are fabric layers.