Automotive Floor Mat Heel Pad With Isolated Support Members
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional automotive floor mats have rigid heel pads that lack flexibility, making them cumbersome to install and remove and difficult to conform to vehicle firewalls, while also requiring excessive plastic material and suffering from moldability issues when attempting to increase flexibility.
Innovation Solution
The use of isolated, hollow support members beneath the heel pad, arranged in organized rows and columns, providing compressive strength and enhanced flexibility, allowing the heel pad to bend and conform to various shapes and directions, similar to the surrounding mat material, while using less plastic material.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If conventional supporting grids are used in heel pads, then compressive strength is provided, but flexibility is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The continuous supporting grid is segmented into isolated support members that are spaced apart from each other. This segmentation allows the heel pad material between the support members to flex more freely while the isolated members provide discrete points of compressive support, resolving the contradiction between strength and flexibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The heel pad is designed with a thin film structure between the isolated support members, allowing the pad to flex and bend more easily. The thin film portions provide flexibility while the isolated support members maintain compressive strength, enabling the heel pad to conform to vehicle firewalls and facilitate easy installation and removal.
2Strength
If rigid heel pads are used, then compressive strength is maintained, but material usage increases
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the supporting grid into isolated support members, the total volume of plastic material required is reduced. The spaced-apart members provide sufficient compressive support with less material than a continuous grid, while the spaces between members eliminate unnecessary material usage.
Solution Approach 2:
Compressive strength is provided only at the specific locations where isolated support members are positioned, rather than throughout the entire heel pad. This local quality approach provides strength exactly where needed (at support points) while reducing material in areas where flexibility is prioritized.
3Strength
If conventional supporting grids are used, then structural support is provided, but moldability decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The segmented structure of isolated support members is simpler to mold than a continuous grid with interlocking ribs. The isolated members can be formed as separate features in the mold, allowing molten plastic to flow more easily and reducing complex mold requirements, thereby improving manufacturability while maintaining structural support.
Solution Approach 2:
The design transitions from a continuous grid structure to discrete isolated members, changing the structural parameter from interconnected to spaced-apart. This parameter change simplifies the molding process by eliminating complex interlocking features, improving flow characteristics of molten plastic, and reducing mold complexity while preserving essential structural support function.
Data Source
AI summary
A floor mat is provided, including a mat body having an upper surface, and a heel pad disposed on the upper surface with a heel pad upper surface and an underside from which depend a plurality of isolated support members projecting generally perpendicularly from the underside such that the heel pad provides compressive strength and enhanced flexibility.