Car Seat Hinge Casing with Segmented Toothed Element
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional car seat hinge attachments face issues with material inefficiency, weight, and complexity due to excessive material usage and limitations in fine blanking, leading to potential fractures under load and difficulty in achieving precise, lightweight, and flexible designs.
Innovation Solution
A casing design featuring hinge parts with perpendicular edges and a toothed element produced by fine blanking, where the toothed element has a thickness at least 1.7 times that of the hinge parts, allowing for a compact, lightweight, and stable unit with flexible assembling characteristics, secured by a clamping ring and potentially laser-welded connections, enabling efficient transmission of rotational movements and varying load capacities.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If fine blanking with bigger crimp area is used to broaden toothed area, then the effective toothed area is increased, but material attenuation occurs and fractures may happen under sudden loads
Solution Approach 1:
The toothed element is separated from the hinge parts and manufactured independently by fine blanking. This segmentation allows the toothed element to achieve the required toothed area dimension without causing material attenuation in the hinge parts, as the crimping process is applied only to the dedicated toothed element rather than the load-bearing hinge parts.
Solution Approach 2:
The toothed element acts as an intermediary component that transmits rotational movements between hinge parts. By placing the toothed area on this intermediary element rather than directly on the hinge parts, the invention avoids material attenuation while maintaining the necessary toothed area for movement transmission.
2Manufacturing precision
If conventional fine blanking is used for hinge parts, then dimensional accuracy is achieved, but the effective thickness cannot be significantly reduced and very fine toothings reach technological limits
Solution Approach 1:
The invention separates the toothed element from the hinge parts, allowing independent optimization of each component. The hinge parts can be manufactured with standard thickness and simple geometry, while the toothed element can be independently designed with very fine toothings and optimized thickness, overcoming the technological limits of fine blanking for integrated designs.
Solution Approach 2:
The toothed element is given significant height (at least 1.7 times the hinge part thickness), moving the toothed area into a third dimension. This dimensional change allows very fine toothings to be achieved on the toothed element without compromising the hinge parts' structural integrity or manufacturing feasibility.
3Stability of the object's composition
If integrated hinge parts with toothings are manufactured, then structural compactness is achieved, but material consumption increases and weight is higher
Solution Approach 1:
The toothed element is extracted as a separate component from the hinge parts. This extraction allows the hinge parts to be manufactured with minimal material consumption and reduced weight, while the toothed element is optimized independently for its specific function of transmitting rotational movements.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention applies material only where needed: the hinge parts have the minimum necessary thickness for structural stability, while the toothed element has the specific thickness and toothed area required for movement transmission. This local quality optimization reduces overall material consumption and weight compared to uniformly thick integrated designs.
4Strength
If thicker hinge parts are used to accommodate toothed area, then structural stability is improved, but material consumption and weight increase
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the toothed element from the hinge parts, the invention allows the hinge parts to maintain structural stability with minimal thickness, while the toothed element independently provides the necessary toothed area and strength for movement transmission, eliminating the need for thicker hinge parts.
Solution Approach 2:
The toothed area is moved to the toothed element with significant height, utilizing the vertical dimension rather than increasing the thickness of the hinge parts. This dimensional relocation maintains structural stability while minimizing material consumption in the load-bearing hinge parts.
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 results in a statically compact, lightweight, and highly stable hinge attachment with improved load transmission and reduced material usage, allowing for cost-effective production and versatile load handling capabilities.
Implementation Method 1
a toothed element (2) produced by fine blanking having a generally encircling shape is receivable within the casing (15), and includes toothing (10) which extends over at least one segment of the generally encircling shape and which is radially directed to an inner side (9)
Implementation Method 2
A clamping ring (16) holds together the edges (3) of the hinge parts (1, 8)
Data Source
AI summary
In a casing for a hinge attachment of a car seat and to a method for its manufacture, the height of a toothed element is significantly larger than the thickness of walls of the hinge parts and the hinge parts and the toothed element form a statically compact casing unit, which has a distinctly reduced weight and simultaneously has distinctive flexible assembling characteristics, high stability under load and high accuracy. The casing and toothed element are separately produced by fine blanking and both parts are connected through a material connection or an form-fit connection.