Damped Sliding-Pivot Shelf Mechanism for Fragile Item Protection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing sliding and pivoting mechanisms in household appliances do not effectively control the movement of shelves to prevent abrupt impacts at end positions, which can damage fragile items like glasses and ceramic crockery.
Innovation Solution
A sliding and pivoting mechanism with a damping unit that includes a fluid damper with a piston and piston rod, arranged on a guide rail, to dampen the movement of shelves into and out of their end positions, preventing abrupt impacts and ensuring controlled, cushioned movement.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a sliding and pivoting mechanism is used to pull out and lift shelves, then the shelf is easily accessible and can be removed from the body, but the shelf moves too quickly and causes abrupt impacts at end positions that can damage fragile items
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies beforehand cushioning by incorporating a damping unit with a damper that activates before the shelf reaches its end position. The damper absorbs and dissipates kinetic energy through fluid resistance, cushioning the shelf's movement and preventing abrupt impacts that could damage fragile items like glasses and ceramic crockery.
Solution Approach 2:
The damping unit acts as an intermediary between the shelf and the end position. The damper with its piston and fluid medium mediates the shelf's movement, controlling its speed and preventing direct impact. This intermediary component protects fragile items by intermediate energy dissipation rather than allowing direct collision.
2Ease of manufacture
If the shelf is allowed to move freely into the end position, then the mechanism is simple and easy to manufacture, but the shelf causes abrupt impacts that can damage fragile items
Solution Approach 1:
The damping unit is integrated into the existing sliding and pivoting mechanism as an intermediary component. The damper connects to the guide rail and shelf through simple mounting arrangements, adding impact protection without fundamentally redesigning the entire mechanism. This maintains ease of manufacture while eliminating harmful impacts.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs hydraulic damping principles by using a fluid-filled damper with a piston. The fluid resistance provides smooth deceleration of the shelf as it approaches the end position, replacing the need for complex mechanical braking systems and simplifying the overall design while protecting fragile items.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If a damping unit is added to control shelf movement, then impact damage to fragile items is prevented, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The damping function is extracted as a separate, modular damping unit that can be independently installed on the guide rail. This separation allows the damping component to be added without complicating the main sliding and pivoting mechanism, making the system easier to manufacture and maintain while still preventing impact damage.
Solution Approach 2:
The damping unit controls the shelf's movement parameters (speed, acceleration) through adjustable fluid resistance in the damper. By changing the fluid viscosity or piston orifice size, the damping characteristics can be optimized without altering the fundamental mechanism structure, maintaining simplicity while preventing impact damage.
4Productivity
If the shelf moves quickly into the end position, then the operation speed is high and productivity is improved, but fragile items may be damaged by impact
Solution Approach 1:
The damping unit creates a periodic deceleration pattern as the shelf approaches the end position. The damper provides progressive resistance that increases as the shelf nears the end, creating a controlled deceleration phase that maintains high overall operation speed while preventing impact damage through staged velocity reduction.
Solution Approach 2:
The hydraulic damper maintains high operation speed by providing smooth, continuous deceleration rather than abrupt stopping. The fluid resistance allows the shelf to move quickly for most of the travel distance, then gradually slows it down near the end position, preserving productivity while preventing impact damage to fragile items.
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 damping unit effectively prevents damage to non-breakable objects by controlling the shelf's movement, ensuring it is braked before reaching its end position and cushioning the acceleration caused by gravity, thus protecting items from impact and ensuring safe operation.
Implementation Method 1
a damping unit (18) which dampens the movement of the shelf (15) into and out of an end position
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2a
Figure 2b~2c
AI summary
The invention relates to a sliding/pivoting mechanism of a shelf (15) of a piece of furniture or of a domestic appliance for pulling out and raising the shelf (15) from a body of the piece of furniture or of the domestic appliance, which sliding/pivoting mechanism has at least two pivoting arms (3, 4), which are fastened by means of a first end to at least one of the side walls of the body in such a way that said pivoting arms can be rotated parallel to the plane of the side walls and which are arranged parallel to each other at a distance from each other, wherein at respective second ends of the pivoting arms (3, 4), a guide rail (5) is fastened in such a way that the guide rail can be pivoted parallel to the plane of the side walls and in such a way that the guide rail (5) can be pivoted from a lower position inside the body to a raised upper position at least partially outside the body, and at least one running rail, which is linearly displacable in the guide rail (5) and to which the shelf (15) is fastened, wherein a damping unit (18) that damps the traveling motion of the shelf (15) in an end position is arranged on the sliding/pivoting mechanism (1). The invention further relates to a piece of furniture and to a domestic appliance having a sliding/pivoting mechanism and a domestic appliance having a damping unit (18), which is arranged on the pull-out guide (2), for damping the shelf (14) in an end position.