Cable Track Spacer-Pin Structure to Prevent Section Snagging
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Solution Overview
Problem
Cable tracks face challenges in preventing snagging when sections move relative to each other, which can cause damage to electrical cables or flexible tubing, and existing solutions often increase stiffness and friction, limiting mobility and requiring more energy for movement.
Innovation Solution
The use of spacers with pins that maintain a minimum distance between sections of the cable track, preventing snagging without significantly increasing friction, achieved through the design of spacers and pins that protrude from the cable track's surfaces and are coated with friction-reducing materials, allowing for smooth movement and protection of cables or tubing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If mechanical means such as springs are used to prevent cable track snagging, then snagging is reduced, but stiffness and internal friction increase, limiting mobility and increasing energy requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces spacers as intermediary elements between cable track sections. These spacers maintain a minimum distance between adjacent sections, preventing direct contact and snagging without requiring mechanical springs or complex mechanisms. The spacers act as mediators that separate the cable track sections while allowing smooth relative movement.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention extracts the snag-prevention function from complex mechanical means (springs, friction elements) and implements it through simple geometric spacers with pins. By removing the need for active mechanical prevention mechanisms, the system achieves snagging prevention through passive geometric constraints that maintain separation between cable track sections.
2Reliability
If mechanical means such as springs are used to prevent cable track snagging, then snagging is reduced, but energy requirements for movement increase
Solution Approach 1:
The spacers serve as passive intermediaries that prevent snagging through their geometric configuration rather than active mechanical forces. The pins on the spacers maintain separation between cable track sections without requiring energy input, eliminating the need for powered spring mechanisms or friction-based prevention systems that would consume energy.
Solution Approach 2:
The spacer-pin structure provides self-service snag prevention through its inherent geometry. The spacers automatically maintain minimum distance between cable track sections during movement, with the pins engaging to prevent direct contact. This passive self-regulating mechanism requires no external energy input while continuously preventing snagging.
3Reliability
If spacers with pins are used to maintain minimum distance between cable track sections, then snagging is prevented without significantly increasing friction, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The cable track is segmented into discrete sections with spacers positioned between them. Each spacer is a separate, simple component with pins that can be independently attached to the cable track sections. This segmentation allows the complex snag-prevention function to be achieved through multiple simple, standardized components rather than a single complex mechanism.
Solution Approach 2:
The spacers and pins are strategically positioned at specific locations along the cable track where snagging is most likely to occur. Rather than uniformly complicating the entire cable track structure, the invention applies localized spacer-pin assemblies only where needed to maintain minimum distance between sections, minimizing overall structural complexity.
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
This solution effectively reduces the likelihood of snagging between cable track sections, maintaining mobility and reducing energy requirements for movement while protecting cables or tubing from damage, without increasing internal friction.
Implementation Method 1
two or more pins attached proximately to the respective second ends of the two or more spacers. The two or more pins protrude from the respective first surfaces of the two or more spacers and/or protrude from the respective second surfaces of the two or more spacers
Implementation Method 2
achieved through the design of spacers and pins that protrude from the cable track's surfaces and are coated with friction-reducing materials, allowing for smooth movement
Data Source
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AI summary
An example apparatus includes a cable track that includes a first side and a second side that is opposite the first side. The apparatus further includes two or more spacers. The two or more spacers include respective first ends that are attached to the first side of the cable track and respective second ends that are opposite the respective first ends. The two or more spacers further include respective first surfaces between the respective first ends and the respective second ends and respective second surfaces that are opposite the respective first surfaces. The apparatus further includes two or more pins attached proximately to the respective second ends of the two or more spacers. The two or more pins protrude from the respective first surfaces of the two or more spacers and/or protrude from the respective second surfaces of the two or more spacers.