Flexible Tablet Hard Soft Housing Design
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional tablets have high manufacturing costs due to large molds, are inflexible, and prone to breakage, making them cumbersome and difficult to customize or carry.
Innovation Solution
A flexible tablet design featuring a hard control board housing and a soft sensing board housing, allowing for reduced mold size, diversified appearance, and enhanced durability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If both upper cover and lower cover are made of hard material for protection, then protection capability is improved, but weight increases and flexibility decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies different material properties to different parts of the housing: the upper cover uses soft flexible material for the writing area to reduce weight and improve flexibility, while the lower cover uses hard material to provide structural support and protection. This local differentiation resolves the contradiction between protection capability and weight/flexibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The housing combines soft flexible material and hard material in a composite structure. The soft upper cover and hard lower cover work together to provide both protection and flexibility, eliminating the need for the entire housing to be made of heavy hard material while maintaining adequate protection.
2Strength
If large size mold is used for plastic injection to cover whole tablet area, then protection capability is improved, but manufacturing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The housing is segmented into an upper cover and a lower cover that can be manufactured separately using smaller molds, then assembled together. This segmentation allows the use of smaller, less expensive molds while maintaining comprehensive protection through the combined structure.
Solution Approach 2:
Different material properties and structural characteristics are assigned to different parts of the housing. The soft upper cover and hard lower cover have different manufacturing requirements, allowing optimization of each part's manufacturing process and reducing overall manufacturing cost.
3Strength
If hard material is used for housing, then protection capability is improved, but flexibility and portability decrease
Solution Approach 1:
The upper cover is made of soft flexible material to provide flexibility and ease of carrying, while the lower cover uses hard material for structural support and protection. This local differentiation allows the tablet to be both flexible and protective.
Solution Approach 2:
The combination of soft and hard materials in the housing creates a composite structure that exhibits both flexibility from the soft upper cover and protection from the hard lower cover, resolving the contradiction between these two properties.
4Stability of the object's composition
If hard plastic housing is used, then structural stability is improved, but ease of customization decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The soft upper cover can be manufactured with different shapes, colors, and patterns more easily than hard plastic, enabling customization of the writing area and appearance while the hard lower cover maintains structural stability. This allows diverse customization options without compromising structural integrity.
Data Source
AI summary
A flexible tablet is disclosed, and particular disclosed a flexible tablet having both of a hard housing structure and a soft housing structure. The flexible tablet fix a control board in the hard housing structure for preventing the control board form bending and break resulting from external force. In the flexible tablet, the soft housing structure is applied instead of the hard housing of a conventional tablet to fix a sensing board therein. Therefore, the soft housing structure and the sensing board are integrated to form a flexible writing member of the flexible tablet. As a consequence of foregoing structure, the tablet is flexible and convenient to be stored and carried, and the cost of the tablet is reduced.