Flexible Socket Holder Assembly for Portable Socket Storage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing socket holders with rigid structural members are cumbersome, difficult to use, and prone to losing individual sockets, making it tedious to find the right fit and challenging to store or carry.
Innovation Solution
Individualized socket holders connected by a flexible member, featuring radially disposed ridges for a pressure fit and a through hole for attachment, allowing them to be strung together for improved usability and mobility.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If socket holders are made as a single piece or multiple pieces linked by a rigid structural member, then manufacturing is simple and cost-effective, but the device becomes cumbersome and difficult to store or carry
Solution Approach 1:
The socket holder is divided into multiple individual holders, each designed to hold a single socket. These individual holders are connected by a flexible member (such as a rubber band or elastic cord) rather than a rigid structure. This segmentation allows each component to be simple to manufacture while the flexible connection provides portability and ease of storage.
Solution Approach 2:
The rigid structural member is replaced with a flexible member that can dynamically adapt to different configurations. The flexible member allows the socket holders to be compressed into a compact form for storage or carried hands-free, while still maintaining connection between individual holders. This dynamic flexibility resolves the contradiction between structural integrity and portability.
2Reliability
If sockets are held on a single rigid holder, then sockets stay together securely, but removing individual sockets to test for fit becomes tedious and difficult
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of one large rigid holder containing multiple sockets, the system uses multiple individual socket holders connected by a flexible member. Each individual holder contains only one socket, making it easy to access and test that specific socket against a bolt head. The flexible member maintains connection between holders, ensuring sockets stay together as a set while allowing individual access.
Solution Approach 2:
The design changes the retention mechanism from rigid structural constraint to flexible elastic constraint. The flexible member provides sufficient retention force to keep sockets together through normal handling, but allows easy removal when needed for testing. This parameter change in the connection type resolves the contradiction between secure retention and easy accessibility.
3Ease of operation
If individualized socket holders are used for each socket size, then socket fitting can be tested before removal from holder, but sockets become more prone to being lost
Solution Approach 1:
Individual socket holders are merged into a connected system through the flexible member. Each holder maintains its individualized design for fit testing, while the flexible member merges them into a unified assembly that prevents loss. The flexible member acts as a safety net, ensuring that even if one socket is accidentally dropped, others remain connected and can be retrieved.
Solution Approach 2:
The flexible member provides a preventive mechanism against socket loss before it occurs. By connecting all individual holders together, the system creates a backup retention system that compensates for the increased risk of individual socket detachment during fit testing. This beforehand cushioning ensures that the convenience of individualized testing does not lead to practical loss of sockets.
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
Enhances storability, mobility, and usability by enabling easy socket fitting and preventing loss, while allowing hands-free carrying and easy access to all sockets.
Implementation Method 1
The set of radially disposed ridges are configured to mate with a socket by a pressure fit between the set of radially disposed ridges and an interior portion of the socket
Data Source
AI summary
The inventive subject matter is directed to socket holders that feature through holes in their bases to facilitate stringing multiple socket holders together. Individual socket holders feature a base portion and a cylindrical portion extending therefrom. The base portion can include one or more concave surfaces that improve user grip, while also featuring a through hole that a flexible member such as a string made from any appropriate material can pass through. An entire set of sockets can be held together by coupling each socket to a socket holder and then stringing the socket holders all together using a flexible member. This reduces the amount of storage space required, makes it more difficult to lose a socket holder, improve portability by making it possible for a user to sling their socket set over a shoulder using the flexible member, and so on.