Expandable Box With Pin And Slot Mechanism
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing collapsible and expandable containers are limited in versatility, often requiring separate boxes for different sizes and orientations, leading to increased production, warehousing, and shipping costs due to their inability to adapt to varied window sizes and shapes.
Innovation Solution
A box composed of four distinct pieces that can independently expand both horizontally and vertically using a pin-and-slot mechanism, allowing for uncoupled movement in both directions, enabling full, partial, or no expansion, and maintaining a rigid structure while fitting any rectangular space.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If traditional collapsible containers are used, then the structure can be simplified for single-direction expansion, but the versatility to adapt to different window sizes and shapes is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The box is divided into four separate quadrants (first, second, third, and fourth pieces) that can be independently positioned and connected. Each quadrant can be individually adjusted to achieve different overall box dimensions, enabling the structure to adapt to various window sizes and shapes while maintaining manageable complexity through modular design
Solution Approach 2:
The pin-and-slot connection mechanism serves multiple functions: it connects adjacent quadrants, allows independent horizontal and vertical adjustment, and enables the box to achieve various configurations (fully expanded, partially expanded, or collapsed) to fit different window openings, making a single box design universally applicable to multiple window sizes
2Ease of manufacture
If separate boxes are procured for different sizes, then each box can be optimized for its specific size, but production, warehousing, and shipping costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
A single box design with four adjustable quadrants can serve multiple window size requirements, eliminating the need to manufacture, warehouse, and ship multiple different sized boxes. The universal design achieves cost savings while maintaining the ability to fit various window openings through its expandable configuration
Solution Approach 2:
The box transitions from a static fixed-size design to a dynamic adjustable structure where quadrants can be independently positioned along horizontal and vertical rails. This dynamic capability allows one box design to replace multiple fixed-size boxes, reducing manufacturing and logistics costs while maintaining size adaptability
3Strength
If the box structure is made rigid, then structural strength is improved, but the ability to expand and collapse is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The box is segmented into four rigid quadrants connected by pin-and-slot joints that allow controlled movement. Each quadrant maintains its rigid structure for strength, while the connections between segments enable the overall box to expand and collapse by allowing quadrants to slide relative to each other along the rails
Solution Approach 2:
The pin-and-slot mechanism acts as an intermediary between the rigid quadrants. The pin provides a fixed connection point while the slot allows linear movement, mediating between the need for rigid quadrant structures and the requirement for expandable/collapsible overall box configuration
Data Source
AI summary
A box which is expandable vertically and horizontally is disclosed. The box can be expanded both vertically and horizontally simultaneously, or in only one of these directions. This is accomplished by pulling/pushing opposite sides further/closer to each other. Rails which at least partially extend between respective opposite sides allow such an expansion/or contraction, the rails, in embodiments, having a pin of one section of the box held within a slot of an adjacent section of the box. The box, in embodiments, is made up of four separate pieces, each being one quadrant (top & left, top & right, bottom & left, bottom & right) of the box. Such a box can be expanded/collapsed to fit within a window and hold an air conditioner there-in.