Flexible Toy Building Component with Mixed Material Base
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional toy building components are rigid and planar, limiting creative play and construction variations, and lack diversity in materials and colors, restricting the ability to stack blocks when not perfectly aligned and providing only uniform tactile experiences.
Innovation Solution
A flexible building assembly with a base and mounting components that can be manipulated into various shapes, allowing objects to be coupled regardless of alignment, featuring a combination of materials and colors to enhance play value and versatility.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If conventional rigid and planar structures are used, then manufacturing precision and structural stability are improved, but adaptability and ease of operation deteriorate due to limited configuration variations and alignment requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The base is designed to be flexible rather than rigid, allowing it to change shape and configuration dynamically. This enables the structure to adapt to different building arrangements while maintaining stability through the flexible material's inherent properties
Solution Approach 2:
The base is constructed from flexible material that can be manipulated into various shapes and configurations. This flexible shell approach allows the structure to provide stable support while accommodating diverse construction patterns and orientations
2Ease of manufacture
If conventional rigid structures with frictional coupling are used, then manufacturing simplicity is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates due to strict alignment requirements for stacking
Solution Approach 1:
The coupling mechanism utilizes the flexible material's ability to change its physical parameters (shape, density) in response to compression. When blocks are stacked, the flexible base compresses and deforms to accommodate misaligned blocks, then returns to its original shape, providing alignment tolerance without complex mechanisms
3Device complexity
If building components are made from single material and uniform color, then manufacturing complexity is reduced, but adaptability and tactile play value deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The base is constructed from flexible material with varying local properties including different colors and textures in different regions. This allows children to experience tactile variety and visual differentiation while interacting with the structure, enhancing play value without requiring multiple separate components
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
Enables flexible and varied building configurations, allowing objects to be coupled in multiple orientations and shapes, providing a stable yet adaptable play surface that promotes creative construction and tactile exploration through mixed materials and colors.
Implementation Method 1
the base being flexible so that the base remains in a non-planar configuration
Data Source
AI summary
A toy building component is disclosed. The toy building component includes a first body portion formed from soft, flexible material and a second body portion formed from a hard, resilient material that is coupled to the first body portion. One of the first body portion and the second body portion comprises a mounting component that extends from the other of the first body portion and the second body portion, and the other of the first body portion and the second body portion forms a protective casing around the toy building component. The different materials have different properties, and in some embodiments, different colors. The portions may be co-molded together to form the building component.