Channelized Inflatable Mattress Core to Prevent Balloon Effect
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current portable mattresses, such as camping mattresses, face challenges in achieving a balance between compactability, weight reduction, and thermal efficiency, with existing methods being either costly or failing to prevent the 'balloon effect' and compromising on user comfort.
Innovation Solution
The use of channelized foam cores with elongate extending air channels and reduced bonded areas, allowing for the creation of unitary and non-unitary mattress cores from a single slab, which increases compactability and thermal performance while preventing excessive thickness increase during inflation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Weight of moving object
If holes and voids are created in foam cores to decrease weight and bulk, then compactability and weight are improved, but manufacturing complexity increases and waste is generated
Solution Approach 1:
The foam core is segmented into multiple sections with channels running through them, creating void spaces that reduce weight and bulk while maintaining structural integrity. The core is divided into longitudinal sections with transverse channels, creating a network of voids without requiring complex manufacturing processes.
Solution Approach 2:
The foam core is designed with integrated channels that create porous structures throughout the material. These channels provide void spaces for weight reduction while the foam material itself maintains its porous, insulating properties for thermal efficiency.
2Length of stationary object
If internal pressure is increased to inflate the mattress, then thickness and comfort are improved, but the balloon effect occurs causing excessive localized expansion
Solution Approach 1:
The mattress structure has varying local properties with bonded regions providing structural support and channelized regions allowing controlled expansion. The channels are positioned to allow localized thickness increase in specific areas while preventing uncontrolled balloon effects in other regions.
Solution Approach 2:
The structure allows controlled changes in thickness parameters through the channel design. The channels permit localized expansion where needed for comfort while the bonded foam sections maintain structural integrity and prevent excessive expansion elsewhere.
3Strength
If the foam core covers the entire planar area to maintain structural integrity, then strength is improved, but compactability and weight reduction are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The core is segmented into multiple foam sections separated by channels, allowing weight reduction through removed material while maintaining strength through the distributed foam sections. The longitudinal and transverse channel arrangement creates a framework that preserves structural integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
The mattress combines foam material with air-filled channels to create a composite structure. The foam provides strength and thermal insulation while the air channels reduce weight and enable compactability, achieving a balance between strength and weight reduction.
4Volume of moving object
If foam compliance is increased to expand slits forming voids, then compactability is improved, but bond performance at foam-panel interfaces degrades
Solution Approach 1:
The foam structure has different local compliance characteristics - softer regions with channels for compression and void formation, and stiffer bonded regions for maintaining bond strength. The channelized design allows compliance in specific areas without compromising the bonded interfaces.
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 approach results in lighter, more compact, and thermally efficient mattresses with enhanced user comfort by allowing localized ballooning of panel portions and reducing material waste, while maintaining high tensile strength and thermal efficiency.
Implementation Method 1
highly insulating, self-inflating, mattresses having open cell foam cores
Implementation Method 2
an elastomeric material such as, but not limited to, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyurethane (PU), nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR), and the like
Data Source
AI summary
An article of manufacture includes an inflatable body comprising a first core member cut from a single slab of core material and a second core member cut from the single slab of core material and coupled to the first core member.