Foldable Ski Pole Basket for Ice Extraction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Ski poles face difficulties in navigating through snow and ice layers during ascent and descent, as large plate areas can become stuck, leading to balance issues and potential safety hazards, especially when transitioning from soft to hard snow conditions.
Innovation Solution
A foldable pole plate design that reduces its cross-section when encountering snow or ice, allowing easy extraction by folding down with minimal force and automatically returning to its open state for optimal support, featuring plate wings hinged around a common axis and a protective cover to prevent snow and ice from entering the hinge area.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of moving object
If the plate area is made large to provide good support in soft snow, then the support surface and effective cross section are increased, but the pole becomes difficult to extract when encountering ice or hardened snow layers
Solution Approach 1:
The pole plate is designed with foldable plate sections that can dynamically change their configuration. The plate transitions from an extended state (providing large support area) to a folded state (reducing cross-section for extraction), allowing it to adapt to different operational phases of pole insertion and removal in varying snow conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The pole plate is divided into multiple foldable plate sections that can be independently folded around a folding axis. This segmentation allows the plate to reduce its effective cross-section by folding the plate sections toward the pole shaft, enabling easy extraction from hard snow and ice layers while maintaining full support area when needed.
2Reliability
If the plate area is made large to ensure robust support, then the support effectiveness is improved, but the pole gets caught in harsh snow layers leading to balance problems and safety hazards
Solution Approach 1:
The foldable plate sections provide dynamic adaptability, allowing the plate to transition between extended and folded configurations. This dynamic behavior enables the pole to reliably support the user when inserted in soft snow while automatically reducing the risk of getting caught in hard snow or ice layers during extraction.
Solution Approach 2:
The effective cross-section parameter of the pole plate is changed by folding the plate sections. When extracting from hard snow or ice, the plate sections are folded to reduce the cross-section, allowing the pole to pass through the harsh layer without getting caught, thereby eliminating the safety hazard while maintaining support reliability when needed.
3Adaptability or versatility
If different plate sizes are provided for different snow conditions, then the adaptability to various conditions is improved, but the weight and material burden on the skier increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of carrying multiple static plates of different sizes, the invention uses a single plate with dynamic foldable sections. This single plate can adapt its effective size by folding or extending the plate sections, providing versatility for different snow conditions without increasing the weight burden on the skier.
Solution Approach 2:
The foldable plate structure serves multiple functions: it provides large support area in soft snow, reduces cross-section for easy extraction in hard snow, and eliminates the need for multiple separate plates. This multi-functionality achieves adaptability to various snow conditions while keeping the overall weight and material burden minimal.
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 foldable design enables smooth and efficient penetration through snow and ice layers with reduced resistance, enhancing user safety and ease of use by maintaining optimal support without getting caught, while materials withstand low temperatures and maintain functionality.
Implementation Method 1
the plate area is designed to be foldable at least in some areas in the direction of a stick tip into a folded state
Implementation Method 2
by converting the stick plate into the folded state by a force acting on an upper side (i.e. the side facing away from the tip) of the plate area, whereby when this force is released it automatically goes into the open state or at least into the half-open state returns
Implementation Method 3
featuring plate wings hinged around a common axis and a protective cover to prevent snow and ice from entering the hinge area
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a pole basket (8) for a ski pole, cross-country pole, trekking pole, Nordic walking pole, or hiking pole, in particular for a ski pole for the touring sector, wherein the pole basket (8) has a planar basket region (9, 11, 15). The pole basket is characterized in that the basket region (9, 11, 15) can be folded in a folded state at least in some regions in the direction of a pole tip (5, 7), and can be opened in the opposite direction to a stop, at which the basket region forms a flat or only unsubstantially curved plane, and that the pole basket (8) is transferred into the folded state by a force acting on a upper face of the basket region (9, 11), and that the pole basket returns to the open state independently when said force is removed.