Composite Hard Suction Cup With Vacuum Alarm for Secure Sealing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional suction cups lack reliability and safety due to inefficient attachment to airtight surfaces of varying flatness and smoothness, and they do not effectively maintain a high vacuum, leading to potential detachment.
Innovation Solution
A high-negative-pressure composite hard suction cup made of a hard composite material with a flexible washer and integrated vacuuming and alarming mechanisms, featuring a piston chamber, one-way valve, spring, and audio/visual indicators to maintain airtightness and alert users to vacuum levels, ensuring secure attachment regardless of surface characteristics.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a conventional soft suction cup is used, then it can attach to airtight surfaces, but it lacks reliability and weight-bearing capability on surfaces of varying flatness and smoothness
Solution Approach 1:
The suction cup combines a hard main body made of composite material with a flexible washer made of soft plastic material. This composite structure allows the main body to maintain structural integrity and weight-bearing capability while the flexible washer adapts to surface irregularities, resolving the contradiction between reliability and adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
Different parts of the suction cup have different material properties: the main body is hard and structurally stable for weight-bearing, while the washer is soft and flexible for adapting to surface variations. This local differentiation of material quality enables the device to simultaneously achieve reliability and adaptability.
2Strength
If high negative pressure is applied to enhance attachment, then weight-bearing capability improves, but the suction cup may detach if vacuum level drops
Solution Approach 1:
The suction cup incorporates a vacuum gauge and alarm system that provides real-time feedback on the vacuum level. When the vacuum degree drops below a safe threshold, the alarm warns the user to replenish vacuum, preventing detachment. This feedback mechanism maintains attachment stability while allowing high negative pressure for weight-bearing.
3Strength
If a hard composite material is used for the suction cup, then weight-bearing capability and structural stability improve, but the suction cup cannot effectively maintain airtightness on irregular surfaces
Solution Approach 1:
The device uses a composite structure combining hard composite material for the main body with soft plastic material for the washer. The hard material provides weight-bearing capability while the soft washer material ensures airtightness on irregular surfaces by deforming to conform to surface variations.
Solution Approach 2:
The flexible washer acts as a deformable sealing element that can conform to surface irregularities. This flexible component compensates for the rigidity of the hard main body, enabling effective airtightness maintenance on surfaces with varying flatness and smoothness.
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 hard suction cup provides enhanced weight-bearing capability and reliable attachment to airtight surfaces, with an alarm system ensuring the suction cup remains attached by alerting users to maintain vacuum levels, thus preventing detachment.
Implementation Method 1
the hard suction cup employs high negative pressure to improve the reliability of the attachment
Implementation Method 2
effectively enhancing the airtightness and friction between the hard suction cup and the object
Implementation Method 3
The piston assembly is supported by the spring and the piston assembly therefore is vertically moveable within the piston chamber
Implementation Method 4
the one-way valve is disposed above the channel
Implementation Method 5
The contact or separation of the first and second conductive columns with or from the conductive ring closes or breaks a circuit involving the audio/visual indicator and the battery
Data Source
AI summary
The high-negative-pressure composite hard suction cup has a main member made of a hard, composite material tightly joined to a highly flexible washer made of soft plastic along a bottom side. The main member is configured with a vacuuming mechanism to another side. The vacuuming mechanism includes a piston chamber, one-way valve, piston assembly, and spring. A vacuum alarming assembly is configured on the piston assembly. When a degree of vacuum between the hard suction cup and an object attached is less than satisfactory, an audio or visual alarm is issued and an alert marking is revealed to notify a user to take appropriate action so that the hard suction cup remains reliably attached to the object.