Flexible Guide Element for Sliding Door Fittings
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing guide devices for parts, such as sliding door fittings, face challenges in compact transportation and require high accuracy in manufacturing, leading to noticeable steps or angle changes during assembly due to tolerance issues.
Innovation Solution
A guide device featuring a continuous guide element made of flexible material, which can be bent for compact transport and assembled to compensate for tolerances, ensuring smooth operation without steps or kinks, with adapters made of dimensionally stable materials for stability and adjustable gaps for flexible length adjustment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If guide rail profiles are divided into shorter sections for compact transport, then transportation space is reduced, but additional installation space is required for butt connectors and manufacturing precision must be high
Solution Approach 1:
The guide device is segmented into a flexible guide element that can be divided into sections for compact transport, while maintaining continuity through flexible connections. The flexible material allows the guide element to be folded or rolled into compact sections during transportation, then expanded to form a continuous guide path during assembly, eliminating the need for additional connectors.
Solution Approach 2:
The guide element's physical state is changed from rigid to flexible by using materials with appropriate flexibility characteristics. This parameter change allows the same guide element to be compacted for transport and then expanded to its full functional length during assembly, resolving the contradiction between compact transport and continuous guidance without requiring additional connectors.
2Length of moving object
If guide rail profiles are joined using butt connectors, then transportation in shorter lengths is enabled, but steps or angle changes become noticeable to users
Solution Approach 1:
The guide element is made from flexible material that can be formed into continuous profiles without rigid joints. This flexible construction allows the guide element to bend and adapt to connection points between sections, eliminating noticeable steps or angle changes that would occur with rigid butt connectors, while still enabling the guide rail to be assembled from shorter transportable sections.
3Manufacturing precision
If a continuous guide element made of flexible material is used, then tolerance compensation is enabled, but the material must maintain sufficient rigidity under load
Solution Approach 1:
The guide element utilizes materials with optimized flexibility-rigidity parameters. The material is selected to have sufficient flexibility to accommodate manufacturing tolerances and bend during assembly, while maintaining adequate rigidity under operational loads to provide stable guidance. This parameter optimization resolves the contradiction between tolerance compensation and load-bearing rigidity.
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 guide element provides a compact and accurate solution that reduces transportation space requirements and compensates for tolerances, ensuring smooth operation and reliability in guiding movable parts, with minimal noticeable angle changes or steps during use.
Implementation Method 1
The at least one continuous guide element is made of a flexible material, allowing certain tolerances between the strip-shaped adapters to be compensated for by a slightly curved, continuous path of the guide element
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2~4
Figure 5~7B
AI summary
The invention relates to a guide device (5, 6) for parts (12, 36) which can be moved along a guide device (5, 6), in particular for a sliding door fitting, comprising a first bar-shaped adapter (10, 30) and at least one additional second bar-shaped adapter (10', 30') which can be mounted in the extension of the first bar-shaped adapter (10, 30). At least one continuous guide element (11, 11', 40) is secured to the first adapter (10, 30) and to the second adapter (10', 30') which is made from a flexible material. The invention also relates to a method for installing a guide device which can be transported in a compact manner and can be be long in length.