Display Housing Interlocking Members for Snap Fit Assembly
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional display housing designs for LCD panels face issues with mechanical strength, particularly in the lug plates that are prone to breakage during snap fitting, leading to recycling of entire frames if one lug plate is damaged.
Innovation Solution
The design incorporates interlocking members with a breaking strength lower than the engaging members, allowing breakage to occur at these members instead of the housing parts, thus protecting the housing components and enabling their reuse by replacing the broken interlocking members.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If lug plates are made thin-walled to enable snap fit engagement, then ease of assembly is improved, but mechanical strength deteriorates causing breakage during assembly
Solution Approach 1:
The connection system is segmented into three distinct components: the first housing part with lug plates, the second housing part with hook members, and the interlocking members. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently - the lug plates can be thin-walled for easy assembly while the interlocking members provide the necessary mechanical strength to prevent breakage during snap fit engagement.
Solution Approach 2:
The interlocking members act as intermediary components between the first and second housing parts. These intermediaries bear the mechanical load during assembly and operation, protecting the thin-walled lug plates from breakage while maintaining the ease of snap fit engagement. The interlocking members transfer forces away from the vulnerable lug plates to more robust structures.
2Ease of operation
If lug plates are made thin-walled to permit snap fit engagement, then assembly flexibility is improved, but reliability deteriorates due to breakage during assembly
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the connection system into separate components (lug plates, hook members, and interlocking members), the patent allows the lug plates to remain thin-walled for assembly flexibility while the interlocking members provide the reliability needed to prevent breakage during assembly and operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The interlocking members are designed as replaceable components that can be easily swapped if damaged. This approach prioritizes reliability by allowing the expensive and time-consuming replacement of only the minor interlocking members rather than entire housing parts, while maintaining the assembly flexibility of thin-walled lug plates.
3Ease of manufacture
If entire front frame is recycled when one lug plate breaks, then manufacturing simplicity is maintained, but loss of substance increases due to waste
Solution Approach 1:
The connection system is segmented into replaceable components, allowing only the broken interlocking members to be replaced rather than the entire front frame. This segmentation reduces material waste while maintaining manufacturing simplicity through standardized connection interfaces that enable easy replacement of individual components.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a selective discarding strategy where only the broken interlocking members are discarded and replaced, while the intact lug plates, hook members, and housing parts are recovered and reused. This approach significantly reduces material waste compared to recycling entire frames, while the standardized design maintains manufacturing simplicity.
Data Source
AI summary
A display housing includes a first housing part including a plurality of first engaging members, a second housing part including a plurality of second engaging members, and a plurality of interlocking members, each of which is snappingly and detachably connected to and interlocks a respective one of the first engaging members and a respective one of the second engaging members. Engagement of each interlocking member with the respective first engaging member prevents relative movement between the first and second housing parts along directions of a first axis of a Cartesian coordinate system, along directions of a second axis of the Cartesian coordinate system, and along directions of a third axis of the Cartesian coordinate system. The first, second and third axes all being perpendicular to one another.