Flexible Apparatus Elastic Frame Neutral Plane Design
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional portable electronic devices have rigid structures, which limit their flexibility and usability in various situations, failing to provide an enhanced user experience similar to that of non-rigid devices like traditional books or newspapers.
Innovation Solution
A flexible apparatus structure comprising a glass window, a front cover, a back cover, and an elastic frame with neutral planes, a resilient internal structure, and touch-sensitive display, allowing the device to bend and deform while maintaining user interface functionality and integrating sensing elements for user input.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If a rigid structure is used in portable electronic devices, then structural strength and stability are improved, but flexibility and adaptability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The frame is divided into multiple segments including rigid portions and elastic portions with neutral planes. The rigid portions provide structural strength while the elastic portions enable bending flexibility. This segmentation allows the frame to simultaneously achieve both strength and adaptability by distributing different functional requirements to different segments.
Solution Approach 2:
The frame structure utilizes parameter changes by creating neutral planes at specific positions where dimensional changes occur during bending. The elastic portions are configured with neutral planes that allow controlled deformation, enabling the device to transition between rigid and flexible states based on operational requirements.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the device structure is made flexible to enable bending, then adaptability and user experience are improved, but structural stability and component protection deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The frame is segmented into rigid portions that maintain structural stability and elastic portions that enable bending. The rigid portions are positioned to provide structural support and protection, while the elastic portions with neutral planes are configured to accommodate bending movements, thus maintaining stability while enabling flexibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The elastic portions act as intermediaries between the rigid portions, absorbing and distributing mechanical stresses during bending. This intermediary structure protects internal components by gradually dissipating forces rather than transmitting them directly, maintaining structural stability while enabling bending capability.
3Reliability
If neutral planes are positioned at the glass window and back cover, then bending stress on these components is reduced, but the frame structure complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The frame is designed with different local qualities by positioning neutral planes specifically at the glass window and back cover locations. These local neutral plane configurations reduce bending stresses at critical components, enhancing their durability. The complexity is justified by the targeted protection of specific high-value components where stress reduction is most beneficial.
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
The flexible structure enhances user experience by enabling intuitive page-turning-like interactions, reducing power consumption, providing privacy through adjustable viewing angles, and offering improved impact resistance and sealing, while maintaining the thinness and smoothness of the device.
Implementation Method 1
an elastic frame configured to form at least a first neutral plane and a second neutral plane... The elastic frame may be configured to deform for compensating the relative movement of the front and back cover
Implementation Method 2
The resilient internal structure may comprise a resilient material or a resilient structure... configured to substantially maintain the distance between the front cover and the back cover
Implementation Method 3
The glass window may further comprise at least one optical grating for changing the viewing angle through the glass window when bent
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus including a glass window, a front cover, a back cover, and an elastic frame. The elastic frame is configured to form at least a first neutral plane and a second neutral plane.