Coupling Unit for Bicycle Tire Rim Attachment
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing coupling units for solid tires on bicycle rims are prone to separation during external impacts, leading to safety accidents, as they lack effective mechanisms to securely fasten the tire to the rim.
Innovation Solution
A coupling unit with an upper surface, lower surface, and side surfaces, where the maximum length is greater than the distance between rim hooks, allowing easy insertion and ensuring surface contact with hooks to prevent separation, satisfying specific geometric equations to ensure secure attachment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the coupling unit is made longer to ensure secure attachment to the rim, then the reliability improves, but the ease of operation deteriorates due to difficult insertion
Solution Approach 1:
The coupling unit incorporates curved side surfaces that conform to the shape of the rim hooks, enabling smooth insertion while maintaining secure engagement. The curvature allows the coupling unit to navigate the hook geometry without requiring excessive force, thus resolving the contradiction between secure attachment and ease of insertion.
Solution Approach 2:
The coupling unit is designed with flexible characteristics that allow it to deform during insertion and then maintain a stable engaged position. This dynamic behavior enables easy insertion through temporary deformation while ensuring reliable attachment in the final position, addressing both requirements simultaneously.
2Reliability
If the coupling unit height is increased to improve contact with hooks, then the reliability improves, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The coupling unit features localized contact areas on its upper surface that are specifically designed to engage with the hook geometry. Rather than increasing overall height uniformly, the design concentrates the necessary contact features in specific local regions, maintaining reliability while minimizing overall structural complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The coupling unit's upper surface is designed to perform multiple functions: providing contact stability with hooks, maintaining appropriate height clearance, and ensuring proper positioning. This multi-functional design achieves reliable contact without requiring additional complex structural elements.
3Reliability
If the coupling unit length is increased to ensure complete insertion between hooks, then the reliability improves, but the manufacturing precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The coupling unit employs asymmetric side surface profiles that are optimized for the specific insertion path between hooks. This asymmetric design provides built-in guidance that compensates for manufacturing variations, ensuring complete insertion and reliable engagement without requiring extremely tight dimensional tolerances.
Solution Approach 2:
The design incorporates specific geometric parameters and dimensional relationships that are optimized to ensure proper engagement. By carefully selecting and coordinating multiple dimensional parameters rather than relying on a single critical dimension, the design achieves reliable complete insertion while maintaining reasonable manufacturing precision requirements.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2A~2A(b)
Figure 2B~2B(e)
AI summary
The present disclosure relates to a Coupling unit for coupling a tire to a rim, the Coupling unit including an upper surface, a lower surface, and side surfaces, in which a maximum length of the Coupling unit is larger than a distance between both hooks of the rim, the side surfaces include sliding areas that are slidable with respect to the hooks of the rim such that the Coupling unit is easily inserted into the rim while the Coupling unit is being inserted into the rim, and in a state in which the Coupling unit is completely inserted into the rim, at least a part of the upper surface is in surface contact with lower surfaces of the hooks to prevent the Coupling unit from being separated from the rim.