Aircraft Cargo Floor Load Distribution Panel
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Solution Overview
Problem
Heavy cargo, such as electric wheelchairs and mobility scooters, often exceeds the permissible load limitations of aircraft cargo area floor panels, risking damage and exceeding weight thresholds.
Innovation Solution
A rigid transport assembly designed to securely hold and distribute the weight of heavy cargo across a larger area of the cargo floor, using shaped sides and cargo tie-down hardware to prevent lateral movement and maintain the cargo in a fixed position, thereby reducing the weight per unit area below permissible limits.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If heavy cargo is loaded directly onto the cargo floor, then cargo transport capability is improved, but floor load limitations are exceeded causing potential damage
Solution Approach 1:
A rigid transport assembly acts as an intermediary device between the heavy cargo and the aircraft cargo floor. The assembly includes a base panel with shaped sides that distribute the cargo weight across a larger floor area, and cargo tie-down hardware that secures the cargo to the assembly. This mediator prevents direct concentration of heavy load on the floor while enabling transport of heavy items.
Solution Approach 2:
The transport assembly extends the load distribution from a point contact (cargo on floor) to a distributed area contact (assembly base panel on floor). By adding the dimensional aspect of the base panel area, the weight is spread across multiple floor panels, reducing the stress concentration on any single floor location.
2Reliability
If cargo is secured to prevent movement, then transport safety is improved, but device complexity increases due to additional hardware
Solution Approach 1:
The cargo tie-down hardware serves multiple functions: it secures the cargo to the transport assembly, prevents lateral movement during transport, and distributes restraining forces across the cargo structure. This multi-functional approach achieves reliable cargo security without requiring separate devices for each function.
Solution Approach 2:
The transport assembly combines the base panel and cargo tie-down hardware into an integrated unit. The shaped sides of the base panel work together with the tie-down hardware to provide both structural support and cargo restraint, reducing the need for separate securing devices and simplifying the overall system.
Data Source
AI summary
A mobility aide transport assembly for use in a cargo hold of a transport vehicle. The assembly has a base panel, sidewalls coupled to the base panel and shaped to extend adjacent and substantially parallel to wall panels of the cargo hold, and end walls coupled to the base panel and extending between the sidewalls. At least one of the end walls has a ramp configuration sloping downwardly from the top portion to the bottom portion of the base panel. Tie down anchors are recessed in the top portion of the base panel and are configured to releasably engage tiedown strap connected to the mobility aide to fixedly retain the mobility aide atop the base panel. Other tie down anchors are recessed in the top portion of the base panel and configured to be coupled to floor anchor members of the cargo hold. Handles are recessed in the top portion of base panel and configured to be engaged by a user to position the base panel relative to the cargo hold's floor panels. The assembly holds the mobility aid is a fixed position on the base panel, and the base panel distributes weight of the mobility aide transport across the area of the panels bottom portion for reduction of the load (lbs/ft2) to the cargo hold's floor panels.