Flip Placard Tabs and Clips for Glove-Friendly Legend Selection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing flip placards on vehicles are difficult to manipulate, especially when wearing gloves, due to sticking together and requiring manual dexterity, leading to inefficiencies in finding the correct legend to display.
Innovation Solution
A flip placard design featuring a base with hinges, movable placards, securing clips, and variably located tabs with indicia, allowing for easy manipulation and separation of placards using tabs for leverage, even when stuck, and securing clips to fix the desired legend in place.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If placards are secured together on a hinge, then the placard structure remains compact and organized, but the placards stick together making it difficult to flip and separate them
Solution Approach 1:
The placard assembly is segmented into individual separable placards that can be independently manipulated. Each placard is a distinct unit that can be flipped separately while remaining part of the organized assembly when secured.
Solution Approach 2:
The placard system transitions from a static secured state to a dynamic flipped state. The securing clips allow the placards to be easily moved from a stable secured position to a flipped position for legend display, and back again.
2Ease of manufacture
If placards are made with smooth edges, then the placard manufacturing is simple and clean, but the placards are difficult to grip and manipulate when wearing gloves
Solution Approach 1:
The placards have different qualities at different locations: smooth surfaces for most of the placard body for clean manufacturing, and textured or protruding tabs at specific locations for improved grip and manipulation.
Solution Approach 2:
The tabs serve as an intermediary between the user's fingers and the placard body. These protruding features provide a mechanical interface that enhances grip without requiring changes to the overall placard design or manufacturing process.
3Volume of moving object
If placards are stacked closely together, then the flip placard unit remains compact, but users spend extra time finding the correct legend and the placards stick together
Solution Approach 1:
The placard system provides self-service through visual indicators (tabs with indicia) that automatically display legend information without requiring users to search or flip through multiple placards to find the correct one.
Solution Approach 2:
The tabs on the placards use visual differentiation (potentially including color variations) to indicate different legends, allowing users to quickly identify and select the desired placard without extensive searching.
4Reliability
If placards are secured with multiple clips at various positions, then the placards are firmly held in place, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The securing clips are universal components that perform multiple functions: they secure the placards to the hinge, provide a flipping mechanism, and can be easily released. The same clip design is used throughout the assembly, reducing the number of unique parts.
Data Source
AI summary
A flip placard includes a base, a hinge, a plurality of placards and two securing clips. The placards each have an aperture therein to be mountable about and movable relative to the hinge. Each placards has a first edge mountable to the hinge and a second edge having a variably located cutout portion defining a tab with indicia thereon. The securing clips have a first position engaging the second edge of the placards and a second position not engaging the second edge of the placards wherein each of the tabs are not viewable in the first position and are viewable in the second position.