Door assembly for a bathing enclosure
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Solution Overview
Problem
Sliding door assemblies for shower or bathtub enclosures often leave a hard-to-reach and difficult-to-clean gap between the slidable and fixed panels when closed, necessitating a solution that allows for easier cleaning and access.
Innovation Solution
A door assembly featuring a rotatable panel secured to a wall and a slidable panel, where the sliding motion of the slidable panel triggers the rotation of the rotatable panel, ensuring they are adjacent and unparallel in the closed position and overlapping in the open position, utilizing guide members and a rotating connector assembly for smooth operation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If a conventional sliding door assembly is used with parallel panels, then the door structure is simple and easy to manufacture, but a hard-to-reach gap is created between the panels when closed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies asymmetry by configuring the door panels to be unparallel when closed, with one panel angled relative to the other. This asymmetric arrangement eliminates the trapped gap between panels that occurs with parallel configurations, allowing cleaning access to all surfaces while maintaining structural simplicity through the sliding mechanism.
2Area of stationary object
If the slidable panel overlaps the fixed panel when closed, then the door provides good coverage, but it creates an area that is relatively hard to reach and clean
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of having panels overlap when closed (conventional approach), the patent inverts the approach by having panels be adjacent and unparallel when closed. The overlap occurs when the door is open, not when closed. This inversion eliminates the hard-to-reach gap while maintaining full coverage capability.
3Ease of operation
If the panels are made adjacent and unparallel when closed, then cleaning accessibility is improved, but the door mechanism becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs dynamics by allowing the door panels to change their relative orientation dynamically. The panels transition from a parallel overlapping configuration when open to an adjacent unparallel configuration when closed. This dynamic adjustment is achieved through a sliding mechanism with guide members that enable the panels to move relative to each other, providing cleanability benefits without requiring complex additional components.
Data Source
AI summary
There is described a door assembly for a bathing enclosure, comprising: a frame; a rotatable panel rotatably securable to a wall; and a slidable panel slidably secured to the frame, wherein a sliding motion of the slidable panel triggers a rotation of the rotatable panel, wherein the door assembly is movable between an open position and a closed position, wherein when the door assembly is in the closed position, the rotatable and slidable panels are adjacent to one another and are unparallel and wherein when the door assembly is in the open position, the rotatable and slidable panels overlap one another and are parallel together.