Duct and method for its manufacture
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Ventilation ducts face challenges in achieving large cross-sectional areas with low flow resistance, fire resistance, high insulation, and cost-effectiveness, while also being easy to store, transport, and install.
Innovation Solution
A duct made from fibre material and binder agent with weakened fold lines that allows for foldability, featuring a circular main cross-sectional shape and a method of manufacturing involving heat compression and lamination with a specific foil to ensure fire resistance and ease of installation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If the duct is made rigid to maintain shape and withstand pressure, then structural strength is improved, but ease of storage and transport deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The duct is divided into segments by introducing fold lines that create weakened regions. These segments can be collapsed together for compact storage while maintaining structural integrity during use. The fold lines act as predetermined separation points that allow the duct to be divided into manageable sections.
Solution Approach 2:
The duct structure changes its physical parameters between deployed and stored states. When deployed, the duct maintains its rigid cylindrical form with full structural strength. When stored, the duct is collapsed into a compact bundle, changing its volume and shape parameters while the material itself retains its strength properties.
2Ease of operation
If the duct is made flexible for easy installation, then ease of operation is improved, but structural strength deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
Different regions of the duct have different properties: the main body maintains full fibre material density and structural strength, while the fold line regions have weakened material composition allowing flexibility. This local differentiation enables the duct to be flexible where needed and rigid where structural support is required.
Solution Approach 2:
The fold lines are pre-formed during manufacturing with weakened material composition. This preliminary action creates predetermined flexible zones that guide the duct's deformation during installation, making it easier to navigate around obstacles without requiring excessive force or complex manipulation.
3Temperature
If the duct uses high insulation material to achieve high insulation, then insulation capability is improved, but weight increases
Solution Approach 1:
The duct uses a composite structure combining fibre material (for structural strength and fire resistance) with binder agent (providing insulation properties). This composite approach achieves high insulation capability while maintaining relatively low weight, as the binder agent provides thermal insulation without the density of solid insulation materials.
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
The duct is cost-effective, easy to store and transport in a folded state, and easily installs by 'popping up' to its original shape, providing high insulation and fire resistance while maintaining its original state without additional stabilization.
Implementation Method 1
the origin fibre material with binder agent is compressible under the influence of heat so that the sides are compressed to about a third of the thickness of the origin fibre material with binder agent. Additionally, the origin fibre material with binder agent may be compressible under the influence of heat so that the fold lines are compressed to a tenth to a twentieth of the thickness of the origin fibre material with binder agent.
Implementation Method 2
the origin fibre material with binder agent is compressible under the influence of heat
Implementation Method 3
The duct is pushable into a folded state and the material remembers the original shape and state and thus expand and return to its original shape and state when released from a folded state.
Data Source
Figure 1~3c
Figure 4a~4c
Figure 5a~5b
AI summary
A duct of fibre material and binder agent, at least two fold lines are present lengthwise for providing a foldability of the duct by weakened material along the fold lines. The duct is pushable into a folded state and the material remembers the original shape and return to its original shape when released from a folded state. A method of manufacturing a duct: applying a web of origin fibre material with binder agent to a core and compressing the web by an outside form under the influence of heat against the core, wherein the core and/or the outside form is provided with a number of lengthwise ridges corresponding to the desired number of fold lines, to a third of the original thickness of the sides and at the ridges a tenth to a twentieth of the original thickness, and in that the fibre and binder agent web weighs 1,5-3kg/m2.