Collapsible Modular Base Assembly for Flat-Pack Popcorn Cart Shipping
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional popcorn making assemblies, especially those designed for mobility, are inconvenient to disassemble and transport due to their integral construction.
Innovation Solution
A modular, collapsible support base assembly that integrates a lower wheeled frame with an upper kernel popper and cabinet module, featuring interlocking tabs and slots, corner mounts, and additional fasteners for quick assembly and disassembly, allowing for compact shipping and easy assembly into a popcorn cart.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If the popcorn cart is constructed as an integral type, then structural integrity is maintained, but mobility and ease of transport are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The popcorn cart is divided into separate modular components including a base assembly with wheeled frame, an upper assembly with kernel popper and cabinet, and intermediate support base. These segments can be disassembled and reassembled using corner mounts, tabs, and slots, enabling both structural integrity when assembled and ease of transport when separated.
2Ease of operation
If the popcorn cart is designed for mobility with wheels, then ease of movement is improved, but stability and frictional contact with ground are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The frame includes a pair of wheels at the rear and a pair of vertical pedestals at the front that can contact the ground. The frame is tiltable about an axis defined by the wheels, allowing the pedestals to engage with the ground for stability during operation while maintaining mobility when tilted for traversing.
3Ease of manufacture
If quick assembly mechanisms like tabs and slots are used, then ease of assembly is improved, but structural integrity may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The corner mounts combine multiple fastening mechanisms including tabs that engage with slots, screw fasteners, and receiving nuts. This merging of multiple attachment methods in a single corner mount provides both quick assembly capability and robust structural integrity through redundant connection points.
4Volume of moving object
If the base assembly is made collapsible for shipping, then packaging size is reduced, but assembly complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The base assembly is segmented into a bottom connecting plate, front plate, back plate, and side plates that can be collapsed flat for shipping. The corner mounts with standardized tabs and slots provide consistent reassembly points, reducing the complexity burden despite the collapsible design.
Data Source
AI summary
A base assembly integrated into an appliance including a lower frame and an upper operating component. A plurality of inter-assembleable and planar shaped members include each of a bottom and upwardly supported and interconnected front, back and sides, these collectively defining an enclosure having an upper surface adapted to support the operating component and a lower surface adapted to secure upon the lower frame. Mounting hardware including at least a plurality of threaded fasteners secures the bottom to locations along the front and back. Pluralities of vertically spaced tabs and opposing vertically spaced slots are configured along each of opposite edges of the sides and along each of first and second pairs of opposite edge extending brackets secured to each of the front and back and which overlap the side edges. The planar shaped members and mounting hardware are adapted to being shipped in a first flat-packed arrangement and subsequently assembled on site in a second use arrangement.