Cable Spool Leg Structure for Stable Ground Payout
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Solution Overview
Problem
The installation of cable into structures is time-consuming and prone to frustrating entanglements due to the lack of stable spools for cable payout, often requiring electricians to fabricate axles or mandrels, which increases installation time and complexity.
Innovation Solution
A reusable spool design featuring flanges and legs that can be deployed to engage the ground surface at varying distances, providing stability and preventing tipping during cable payout, allowing for easy rotation and clearance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If cable is provided in a simple plastic wrapping or cardboard box, then manufacturing cost is reduced, but the cable coil cannot rotate smoothly during payout causing entanglements and slower installation
Solution Approach 1:
The spool is divided into separate functional components: a drum for cable winding, flanges for structural support and ground engagement, and removable legs for stability. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently while maintaining overall functionality, enabling smooth cable payout without entanglements.
Solution Approach 2:
The spool incorporates movable legs that can transition between deployed and stowed positions. When deployed, the legs provide enhanced stability and ground engagement; when stowed, they allow for compact storage and easy transport. This dynamic adaptability resolves the contradiction between stability during installation and portability during transport.
2Device complexity
If a traditional spool design is used without extended ground engagement, then device complexity is reduced, but the spool tips easily during cable payout
Solution Approach 1:
The spool design extends stability from a two-dimensional base (flange ground contact) to a three-dimensional structure by adding legs that project vertically and engage the ground at a different elevation. This dimensional extension creates a wider stability base and prevents tipping during cable payout operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The legs act as intermediary elements between the spool body and the ground surface. They provide an additional contact interface that mediates the interaction between the spool and ground, distributing loads and preventing direct tipping of the spool body while maintaining structural simplicity.
3Device complexity
If the cable coil is placed directly on the ground surface, then device complexity is reduced, but there is insufficient clearance for smooth cable payout
Solution Approach 1:
The spool elevates the cable coil to a higher potential position above the ground surface, creating uniform clearance space around the coil. This equipotential clearance zone allows cable to payout smoothly in all directions without ground interference, while the compact spool structure minimizes the elevation height required.
4Strength
If flanges are permanently attached to the drum, then structural strength is improved, but the spool cannot be reused with different cable coils
Solution Approach 1:
The connection between flanges and drum exhibits local quality variation: the interface is designed with removable features (such as snap-fit mechanisms or threaded connections) that provide permanent-like strength during operation but allow for deliberate disassembly. This localized adaptability enables reusability while maintaining structural integrity during cable payout.
Solution Approach 2:
The flanges are designed to be temporarily discarded (removed) from the drum when cable coils need to be changed, and then recovered (reattached) for the next installation. This reversible attachment strategy maintains structural strength during each installation cycle while enabling repeated reuse of the spool components across multiple installations.
Data Source
AI summary
A spool includes a receiving portion configured to receive a coil of cable and a first retaining portion and a second retaining portion configured to retain the coil of cable on the receiving portion. A portion of an outer peripheral surface of the first retaining portion and a portion of an outer peripheral surface of the second retaining portion are configured to engage a ground surface. The first retaining portion includes first support portions configured to extend beyond the outer peripheral surface of the first retaining portion to engage the ground surface across a greater distance than the outer peripheral surface of the first retaining portion, and the second retaining portion includes second support portions configured to extend beyond the outer peripheral surface of the second retaining portion to engage the ground surface across a greater distance than the outer peripheral surface of the second retaining portion.