Flexible Screen With Staggered Openings For Ventilation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional flexible furniture screens, such as tambour and flex panels, are labor-intensive to produce, lack ventilation, and are prone to accordioning, making them unsuitable for applications requiring flexibility and airflow.
Innovation Solution
A flexible screen design featuring openings with widths greater than the panel thickness, combined with bending flexures and thickened stiffeners, to enhance ventilation and reduce accordioning while maintaining flexibility.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If conventional tambour with solid slats is used, then structural integrity is maintained, but ventilation and light circulation are blocked
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies porous materials by incorporating a grid of linear slits through the panel material, creating a porous structure that allows air and light to pass through while maintaining the panel's structural integrity. The slits are arranged in a pattern that provides ventilation functionality without compromising the overall strength of the screen.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the solid panel by cutting linear slits through it, dividing the continuous material into separated regions. This segmentation creates openings for ventilation while the remaining material segments maintain structural support, resolving the contradiction between solid integrity and ventilation needs.
2Ease of manufacture
If flex panels with thin slits are used, then manufacturing cost is reduced, but accordioning distortion occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the parameters of the slits by making them wider compared to conventional flex panels. This parameter change reduces the accordioning effect while still allowing the panel to flex. The wider slits provide more material between openings, maintaining structural stability during flexing operations.
3Strength
If numerous individual slats are stacked and glued, then structural strength is maintained, but labor intensity and production time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple individual slat components into a single integrated panel. Instead of stacking and gluing numerous separate slats, the invention uses one panel with cut slits that provides the same structural function. This merging dramatically reduces labor intensity and production time while maintaining structural strength.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the unnecessary complexity of multiple individual slats and their assembly process. By taking out the need for stacking and gluing operations, the invention simplifies manufacturing to a single panel cutting process, significantly improving productivity while preserving the structural benefits of multiple slats.
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 solution provides effective ventilation, minimizes accordioning, and is economical to manufacture, making it suitable for use as a flexible screen in place of conventional tambour or flex panels.
Implementation Method 1
openings therethrough for air and/or light to filter therethrough
Implementation Method 2
the remaining material may flex in torsion, which allow these screens to flex
Data Source
AI summary
A flex screen having: a width; a length; a thickness; a plurality of openings having a length and width, with a first opening laterally adjacent a second opening and longitudinally adjacent a third opening; a plurality of stringers, including a first stringer laterally positioned between the first and second openings; and a bridge between the first and third openings. The first opening is laterally bounded between the first and second stringers and longitudinally bounded by the bridge, which serves to span and connect the first and second stringers. The first opening is longitudinally staggered from the second opening and the bridge is connected to the first stringer at a location longitudinally partway along the second opening. The flex screen may be elastically flexed to a flexed orientation, including torsional displacement of the first and second stringers. The lateral width of the first opening is greater than the thickness of one of the first and second stringers.