Foldable Luggage Case with Hybrid Hard-Soft Sections

Solution Overview

Problem

Conventional travel cases for elongate items like golf clubs and skis face challenges in providing adequate protection without excessive weight and size, as soft-sided cases are not protective enough and hard-sided cases are cumbersome and inefficient in storage and shipping.

Innovation Solution

A travel case design featuring hard-sided end and center sections for protection, combined with collapsible soft-sided intermediate sections made of supple materials, allowing the case to be folded for reduced storage space and weight, while maintaining robustness against impact and deformation.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Weight of moving object

If a soft sided case is used, then the case is lightweight and collapsible, but it does not provide sufficient protection against impact and bending forces

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecase weightVSAvoidprotection capability

Core Design Contradiction:

Weight of moving objectVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The case is divided into multiple sections with different material properties: hard sided end sections for protection, soft sided intermediate sections for weight reduction and collapsibility. This segmentation allows each part to fulfill its specific function optimally.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

Different parts of the case have different material characteristics - the end sections use hard material for impact protection, while the intermediate sections use soft material for flexibility and weight reduction. This local differentiation resolves the contradiction between protection and weight.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

2Reliability

If a hard sided case is used, then protection against impact and bending forces is significantly improved, but the weight and size increase making it cumbersome for storage and shipping

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveprotection capabilityVSAvoidcase weight

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSWeight of moving object

Solution Approach 1:

The case is divided into multiple sections with different material properties: hard sided end sections for protection, soft sided intermediate sections for weight reduction and collapsibility. This segmentation allows each part to fulfill its specific function optimally.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

Different parts of the case have different material characteristics - the end sections use hard material for impact protection, while the intermediate sections use soft material for flexibility and weight reduction. This local differentiation resolves the contradiction between protection and weight.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

3Reliability

If a hard sided case is used, then protection against impact and bending forces is significantly improved, but the storage space and shipping cost increase due to inability to compress

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveprotection capabilityVSAvoidstorage space

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSVolume of stationary object

Solution Approach 1:

The case is divided into multiple sections with different material properties: hard sided end sections for protection, soft sided intermediate sections for weight reduction and collapsibility. This segmentation allows each part to fulfill its specific function optimally.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The intermediate sections are designed to be collapsible and flexible, allowing the case to be compressed to a smaller size when not in use, while the hard sided end sections maintain their protective function. This dynamic property resolves the contradiction between protection and storage volume.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #15Dynamics

Data Source

PatentUS8967375B1Fold up luggage for elongate items

Publication Date: 2015.03.03 ATHALON SPORTSGEAR

AI summary

A travel case for elongate items such as skis, golf clubs, snowboards, or the like comprises an elongate bag having a pair of hard sided end sections longitudinally spaced from a hard sided center section. Between each end section and the center section is a respective soft sided intermediate section. The hard sided end and center sections provide protection for the case contents at the vulnerable locations of those contents. The soft sided intermediate sections, made of collapsible and supple material, provide the advantage of reducing the weight of the overall case, and the suppleness permits the end sections to be folded in on the center section when the case is open along its length to educe the length and the required storage space for the case when not in use.