Billiards Ball Rack With Pivoting Door for Gap-Free Removal
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional billiards ball racks fail to maintain the integrity of the racked ball formation during removal, often causing gaps and disrupting the gameplay.
Innovation Solution
A ball rack with a formation-shaping frame, a pivoting billiards-ball door, and spherical protrusions that allow for sliding without disturbing the balls, using a biasing spring to secure the formation and enable easy removal.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If conventional racks are used to enclose and compress balls, then the balls can be tightly racked, but the rack removal disturbs the ball formation and creates gaps
Solution Approach 1:
The rack is divided into a frame structure with separate door panels that can be independently opened. This segmentation allows the door to be opened for ball insertion while the frame remains stable, and enables controlled removal without disturbing the ball formation.
Solution Approach 2:
The spherical protrusions are pre-positioned on the frame arms to contact the billiards table surface before rack removal. This preliminary contact establishes a stable sliding interface that prevents the rack from disturbing the balls during removal.
2Manufacturing precision
If the rack structure is made rigid to maintain ball positioning, then ball arrangement precision improves, but the rack becomes difficult to slide and remove
Solution Approach 1:
The frame arms have different properties at different locations: the spherical protrusions at the contact points provide low-friction sliding capability, while the overall frame structure maintains rigidity for precise ball arrangement. This local differentiation resolves the contradiction between rigidity and slidability.
3Stability of the object's composition
If the door is kept closed to secure balls during compression, then ball tightness improves, but ball insertion and rack operation becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The door is designed as a dynamic element that can pivot between closed and open positions. During ball insertion, the door is opened to allow ball placement; during compression and removal, the door is closed to maintain ball tightness and formation stability.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution ensures the balls remain tightly arranged during and after rack removal, enhancing gameplay experience by maintaining the desired configuration.
Implementation Method 1
a biasing spring configured to move the door panel between an opened position, and a closed position about a door pivot axis
Implementation Method 2
The spherical protrusion may enable easy sliding of the ball rack without disturbing tightly racked balls
Data Source
AI summary
A ball rack for positioning and arranging billiards balls is disclosed. The ball rack includes a formation-shaping frame, having a pair of frame arms. Further the formation-shaping frame is coupled to a billiards-ball door. The ball rack further includes a pair of rear portions provided on each respective frame arm. Further a pair of door supports are provided on the pair of the rear portions. Each door support extends upwardly from the pair of frame arms and is configured to receive a door shaft, a door panel coupled to the door shaft, and a biasing spring configured to move the billiards-ball door between an opened position, and a closed position about a door pivot axis. The ball rack as disclosed may further include a spherical protrusion mounted on the pair of arms. The spherical protrusion enables easy sliding of ball rack without disturbing the tightly racked balls.