Flexible Drive Shaft Fan for Stable Adjustable Airflow
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Electric motor driven fans are top-heavy due to heavy motors, leading to mechanical instability and a larger footprint, making them difficult to handle and place effectively.
Innovation Solution
A design featuring a base member with a flexible drive shaft assembly, including a bendable sheath surrounding a flexible drive shaft, which transfers rotational motion from the motor to the fan, allowing for adjustable positioning and stability by distributing the mass at the base, reducing the overall size and increasing positional stability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Power
If the motor is mounted on top of the pedestal, then the fan can be driven effectively, but the device becomes top-heavy and mechanically unstable
Solution Approach 1:
The motor is inverted and mounted within the base member instead of on top of the pedestal. This inverts the traditional mounting configuration, placing the heavy motor at the bottom to achieve a low center of gravity and improve mechanical stability while maintaining fan driving capability through the flexible drive shaft.
2Stability of the object's composition
If the base member is made larger to offset top-heavy instability, then mechanical stability improves, but the device footprint and mass increase
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of enlarging the base member to compensate for top-heavy instability, the invention inverts the motor mounting to place heavy components at the bottom. This achieves stability through proper weight distribution rather than increasing base size, thereby maintaining a compact footprint.
3Stability of the object's composition
If the motor is mounted within the base member, then positional stability and compactness improve, but the drive mechanism becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
A flexible drive shaft enclosed in a bendable sheath is used to transmit rotational power from the motor within the base member to the fan. The flexible shaft can bend and flex to accommodate the inverted configuration and provide the necessary power transmission while maintaining a compact, stable structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The flexible drive shaft acts as an intermediary element that bridges the motor output and the fan input. It enables power transmission across the inverted configuration and accommodates the spatial relationship between the motor within the base and the fan above, simplifying the overall design despite the inverted mounting.
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 a positionally stable and compact fan device with adjustable air flow direction, enhancing portability and ease of placement while maintaining operational stability.
Implementation Method 1
A flexible drive shaft assembly is provided which includes a flexible drive shaft having a first end and a second end, and a bendable sheath surrounding the flexible drive shaft
Data Source
AI summary
An electric motor driven fan device has a base member with walls forming an enclosure, an electrically powered motor located within the enclosure and having an output shaft coupled via a bearing mounted in an upper wall of the base member to one end of a flexible drive shaft rotatably enclosed in a bendable sheath secured to the base member. The other end of the flexible drive shaft is coupled via a second bearing to a driven shaft secured to a multi-bladed fan. The other end of the bendable sheath is secured to the outer race of the second bearing. The predominant mass of the device is at the bottom, which reduces the footprint of the lower portion. The bendable sheath enables the attitude of the fan to be manually adjusted.