Flexible Duct Metering Choker for Compressed Retention
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Solution Overview
Problem
Flexible ducts expand fully when uncompressed, making it difficult to retain unused lengths within their containers, requiring cumbersome reinsertion and additional tools, and increasing shipping and handling costs.
Innovation Solution
A metering system that allows selective extension of a predetermined length of duct from a flexible container while keeping the rest in a compressed state, using a choker to generate tension within the container and prevent further expansion, eliminating the need for recompressing unused duct and reducing material costs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the entire length of compressed duct is allowed to expand when the container is opened, then the duct can be accessed for cutting, but the unused length becomes difficult to retain within the container and requires cumbersome reinsertion
Solution Approach 1:
The duct is segmented into two portions by the choker: an extended portion that is accessed and cut, and a retained portion that remains compressed within the container. This segmentation allows the installer to work with the extended portion while the remaining duct stays organized and compressed, eliminating the need to recapture unused duct.
Solution Approach 2:
The choker acts as an intermediary device between the compressed duct and the container opening. It controls the expansion process by allowing only a selected portion to extend while restraining the remainder, thereby facilitating easy access without creating the problem of loose, unmanageable duct.
2Productivity
If a choker is used to restrain a portion of the duct, then unused duct remains compressed in the container, but the choker must be positioned to allow selective extension
Solution Approach 1:
The choker is implemented as a simple, inexpensive strap that can be easily applied and removed. Its simplicity and low cost make the overall metering system economically viable without requiring complex or expensive equipment at the job site.
3Stability of the object's composition
If the flexible container is made rigid to prevent expansion, then duct retention is improved, but shipping and handling costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The flexible container maintains its compression through the self-generating tension created when the choker restrains the duct's expansion force. The duct's own longitudinal expansion force, when restrained, creates the necessary tension to hold the compressed state without requiring additional rigid structural support or expensive specialized containers.
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
Enables efficient retention of unused duct lengths in their compressed state within the container, simplifying handling and reducing storage costs by allowing selective length removal without additional tools or material, maintaining the duct in a substantially compressed state.
Implementation Method 1
generating a tension in the flexible container between the closed end and the spaced position in response to the longitudinal expansion force of the retained duct
Data Source
AI summary
A system for displacing a sub-length of duct from a flexible container retaining a longitudinally compressed length of the duct in provided. A choker is disposed about the flexible container, and defines a radial constriction on the container sufficient to significant expansion of the retained longitudinally compressed duct between the choker and the closed end of the container.