Cabin Glazing Retention via Flexible Connecting Elements
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cabin designs for cable cars lack effective retention of glazing during sudden impacts, leading to potential ejection of passengers or goods, posing safety risks and hazards.
Innovation Solution
A cabin design featuring a bracket with connecting elements that secure glazing through fastening elements, utilizing bendable and flexible connecting members to compensate for material expansion and distribute loads, ensuring the glazing remains attached even under violent impacts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If window panes are inserted into grooves with rubber strips or glue under normal conditions, then the structure is simple and easy to manufacture, but the window panes can be detached during sudden impacts or cable derailment, causing safety hazards
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs dynamic retention mechanisms including spring-loaded clamps and flexible connecting elements that can adapt to sudden force changes during cable derailment or impact events. These dynamic elements maintain continuous contact pressure on the window panes, preventing detachment under exceptional loading conditions while remaining simple during normal operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent incorporates energy-absorbing elements such as rubber buffers and deformable connecting pieces positioned between the window panes and the cabin frame. These elements are designed to deform or compress during sudden impacts, absorbing the kinetic energy that would otherwise eject the window panes, thereby providing beforehand cushioning against detachment forces.
2Strength
If rigid connecting elements are used to secure glazing, then the connection is strong, but the structure cannot compensate for thermal expansion and material stresses
Solution Approach 1:
The patent utilizes flexible connecting elements made from elastomeric materials or thin-walled deformable structures that connect the window panes to the cabin frame. These flexible components maintain strong mechanical connection while accommodating thermal expansion and contraction of the glass and frame materials, preventing stress concentration and connection failure.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs connecting elements with variable stiffness characteristics that can change their mechanical properties in response to temperature and stress conditions. The connecting elements are designed to become more compliant under thermal loading while maintaining adequate strength under normal operating conditions, effectively adapting to different parameter states.
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 effectively prevents passengers or goods from falling out by securely retaining the glazing during exceptional situations, enhancing safety and withstanding various loads through elastic properties.
Implementation Method 1
the first fastening element and the second fastening element of a connecting element of the cabin are connected to one another by means of a bendable and/or flexible connecting element. One of the advantages of the invention is that the expansion of the materials of the cabin caused by temperature variations, in particular in the glazing and the support, can be compensated for in the connection members. In this way, material stresses can be compensated for via the bendable and/or flexible connecting element.
Data Source
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AI summary
A cabin for accommodating passengers and/or goods, including an opening and a holder fastened to the cabin for holding a glazing unit in the opening. The cabin includes at least two connection members that each include a first fastening part connected to the glazing unit and a second fastening part connected to the cabin. The glazing unit is secured in the region of the opening when the glazing unit has detached from the holder. The glazing unit can, for example, be pressed out of the holder as a result of persons carried in the cabin violently pushing or striking the inner side of the glazing unit. However, the connection member prevents these persons from falling downwards out of the cabin. The glazing unit is also prevented from falling. As a result, safety of the passengers and/or goods in the cabin is ensured.