Emergency Evacuation Lifeline Recess and Movable Panel

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing emergency evacuation systems in vehicles, such as aircraft, face challenges with lifelines being stored in recesses, making them difficult to access during emergencies and potentially deploying unintentionally, which can cause stress and hinder passage when not needed.

Innovation Solution

An arrangement with a movable panel that secures the lifeline's deployment section within a recess, hidden from view in inactive mode, allowing manual deployment only during emergencies, preventing accidental activation and ensuring the lifeline is accessible at the emergency exit.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If the lifeline is stored in a recess of the aircraft, then it is protected when not in use, but it becomes difficult to access during emergencies and may be inadvertently actuated

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveprotection of lifelineVSAvoidaccessibility of lifeline

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The system is divided into two functional parts: a storage recess that protects the lifeline when not in use, and a deployment mechanism with handle that becomes accessible during emergencies. The partition separates the protected storage area from the accessible deployment area, allowing the lifeline to be both protected and accessible through spatial segmentation.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The lifeline is pre-positioned in the recess with the deployment section extending through the partition, ready for immediate use. The handle is preliminarily positioned in the recess but becomes accessible when needed, eliminating the need for return trips to retrieve the lifeline during emergencies.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

2Ease of operation

If the lifeline deployment section is accessible outside the recess, then it can be easily deployed, but it may deploy unintentionally and cause stress when not needed

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedeployability of lifelineVSAvoidunintentional deployment stress

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

Different sections of the lifeline system have different accessibility qualities: the storage section remains protected in the recess, while the deployment section passes through the partition to become accessible only when needed. The handle is positioned in the recess during normal operation, preventing unintentional actuation, but becomes accessible during emergencies for proper deployment.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

3Ease of operation

If the handle is visible from outside the recess, then it can be easily located, but it risks being inadvertently actuated by individuals passing by

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvelocatability of handleVSAvoidprevention of accidental activation

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The handle's accessibility is dynamic rather than static. During normal operation, the handle remains in the recess and is invisible from outside, preventing accidental activation. During emergencies, the panel is moved to open the emergency exit, and the handle becomes accessible for deployment. This dynamic positioning resolves the contradiction between locatability and prevention of accidental activation.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #15Dynamics

Data Source

PatentUS11806556B2Arrangement provided with an emergency evacuation system

Publication Date: 2023.11.07 EUROCOPTER FRANCE SA

AI summary

An arrangement provided with a partition at least partially delimiting an emergency exit, the arrangement having a movable panel that closes the emergency exit in an inactive operating mode, the arrangement comprising an evacuation system provided with a lifeline. The lifeline comprises a deployment section passing through a passage in the partition and secured to a handle, the panel together with the partition delimiting a recess in which the handle is arranged in the inactive operating mode.