Pivoting Clamp with Offset Drive Screw for Furniture Frame Mounting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing clamps for supporting devices like laptops and tablets lack a secure and adjustable mechanism to engage with various furniture frames, leading to instability and limited positioning options.
Innovation Solution
A clamp design featuring pivotally connected legs with a crosswise configuration and a closing mechanism that includes a threaded drive screw and drive body, allowing for adjustable clamping action and offset clamping surfaces to securely engage objects without interfering with the clamp's main shaft, along with a telescoping base arm and adjustable device-receiving attachment for flexible positioning.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If a simple clamp structure is used, then the device complexity is reduced, but the stability and securing capability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The clamp employs dynamically adjustable legs that can pivot and reposition relative to each other, allowing the structure to adapt to different frame configurations. The legs are connected through a drive mechanism that enables movement while maintaining secure engagement, resolving the contradiction between structural simplicity and securing capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The clamp is divided into multiple independent legs that can be adjusted and positioned separately. Each leg can be independently controlled to engage with different parts of the furniture frame, providing enhanced securing capability without requiring a complex monolithic structure.
2Manufacturing precision
If fixed clamping surfaces are used, then the manufacturing precision is improved, but the adaptability to different frame sizes deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The clamping surfaces are mounted on adjustable legs that can be repositioned along the leg length and angled relative to each other. This dynamic positioning capability allows the same clamping surfaces to engage with frames of various sizes and configurations, maintaining manufacturing precision while achieving versatility.
Solution Approach 2:
The legs provide an additional dimension of adjustment by allowing movement in multiple directions (pivoting, extending, retracting). This transforms the fixed two-dimensional clamping surface into a three-dimensionally adjustable element, enabling adaptation to different frame sizes while maintaining precise clamping contact.
3Device complexity
If the clamping surfaces are positioned close to the main shaft, then the device complexity is reduced, but the ability to engage objects without interference deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The clamping surfaces are positioned asymmetrically relative to the main shaft, with offset mounting points on the legs. This asymmetric arrangement allows the clamping surfaces to engage objects at optimal positions while the legs pivot to accommodate the geometry, preventing interference with the main shaft rotation without requiring complex additional mechanisms.
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 clamp provides stable and adjustable support for devices, allowing secure engagement with different frame sizes and orientations, enhancing usability and versatility in positioning devices for convenient viewing or use.
Implementation Method 1
A threaded drive screw has a proximal end, an opposite distal end, and a drive-screw axis extending through the proximal and distal ends
Data Source
AI summary
A clamp includes first and second legs pivotally and crosswise attached to one another, with a closing mechanism connected to both legs. The closing mechanism includes an anchor body having a threaded bore engaged with a threaded screw. A distal end of the threaded screw engages a drive body. Two drive-body links each have a first end engaging the drive body and a second end engaging one of the first and second legs at link joints so that when the drive body is urged in a distal direction by the drive screw, the respective first ends and the respective second ends are urged together. The clamp may form part of a computing device stand with a base arm connected to the clamp, a main arm connected to the base arm, and a device-receiving attachment operatively connected to the main arm.