Ball Head Anti-Rotation Interface for Heavy-Load Torque Transfer
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing ball heads used for securing optical instruments and rifles experience bending and deformation due to excessive pressure, particularly when heavy equipment is mounted, leading to performance deterioration and potential unusability.
Innovation Solution
A ball head design with a modified stem and clamp interface featuring multiple teeth and symmetric angular contact surfaces, allowing for enhanced torque transfer and resistance to rotational movement, ensuring secure engagement without deformation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the ball is secured in place with increasing amounts of pressure to prevent slippage, then the stability and reliability of the mounting is improved, but the interface between the ball head and locking device bends and deforms
Solution Approach 1:
The interface is segmented into multiple teeth (at least three teeth) around the circumference instead of a single continuous contact surface. This segmentation distributes the torque and pressure across multiple discrete contact points, preventing bending and deformation of the interface while maintaining secure engagement.
Solution Approach 2:
The contact surfaces of the teeth are designed with specific angular orientations (e.g., 60 degrees, 90 degrees, or 120 degrees relative to the longitudinal axis) to optimize local stress distribution. This local quality enhancement ensures that pressure is applied perpendicular to the contact surfaces, maximizing torque transfer efficiency while minimizing bending moments.
2Ease of manufacture
If a simple clamp and screw mechanism is used, then the device complexity is reduced and ease of manufacture is improved, but the torque transfer capability and resistance to rotational movement is insufficient under heavy loads
Solution Approach 1:
The clamp interface is segmented into multiple teeth that engage with corresponding features on the ball head. This segmentation provides multiple contact points for torque transfer, significantly enhancing the torque transfer capability and resistance to rotational movement while maintaining the simplicity of the clamp and screw mechanism.
Solution Approach 2:
The interface combines multiple geometric features (teeth, contact surfaces, angular orientations) into a composite structural design that achieves high torque transfer capability without requiring complex mechanisms or materials. The composite geometry of the teeth and contact surfaces provides both strength and manufacturability.
Data Source
AI summary
A head suitable to be supported by a tripod or a monopod includes a rotatable ball contained within a body defining a socket where the rotatable ball includes a shaft extending therefrom suitable to attach to a retainment structure to support a device thereon. A first movable member selectively increases and decreases the ability of the ball to freely rotate. A terminal end of the shaft includes a retainment structure that includes at least four angularly arranged “V” shaped members protruding from the terminal end, where each of the “V” shaped members extends over 90 percent of the distance from a central opening defined by the shaft and an exterior peripheral surface defined by the shaft.