Folding Floating Vessel Width Adaptation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Large boats used for activities like manure agitation in lagoons require a wider profile for effective operation, but this makes them difficult to transport due to width restrictions, necessitating a design that can accommodate both wider water operation and narrower transport dimensions.
Innovation Solution
A foldable floating vessel with pivotally coupled hulls and a central spine, equipped with linear actuators that extend for operation and retract for transport, allowing the hulls to pivot upward and reduce the vessel's width, enabling easier transportation while maintaining a large buoyant surface for water operations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If the boat width is increased to provide greater stability and payload capacity, then the boat can perform water operations more effectively, but the boat becomes difficult to transport on roads with width restrictions
Solution Approach 1:
The boat hulls are designed to be dynamically adjustable in width through a folding mechanism. During water operations, the hulls are extended to provide maximum stability and payload capacity. During transport, the hulls are folded inward to reduce the overall width, allowing the boat to navigate roads with width restrictions. This dynamic transformation enables the boat to optimize its dimensions for different operational contexts.
2Ease of operation
If the boat width is reduced to improve transportability, then the boat can be moved more easily between worksites, but the boat loses stability and payload capacity required for effective water operations
Solution Approach 1:
The folding hull mechanism allows the boat to dynamically adjust its width. When transported, the hulls are folded to minimize width for easy mobility between worksites. When deployed on water, the hulls are unfolded to their full width, restoring the stability and payload capacity necessary for effective water operations. This dynamic adaptation eliminates the need to permanently compromise stability for transportability.
3Productivity
If a larger pump and spray nozzle are used to effectively mix sludge at the center of the lagoon, then manure agitation is improved, but the motor and pump assembly becomes too heavy and large for the boat to support
Solution Approach 1:
The mixing function is segmented into two components: a smaller onboard pump-spray assembly and the folding hull structure itself. The hulls, when folded during transport, reduce the boat's overall width and weight, allowing the boat to support the pump assembly. During operations, the unfolded hulls provide the necessary buoyancy and stability to support the pump and spray nozzle, enabling effective manure mixing without requiring an excessively large or heavy pump assembly.
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 design allows for efficient manure agitation and sludge suspension in lagoons while facilitating easier transportation by adjusting the vessel's width, addressing the challenges of prior art boats that sacrifice size and stability for transportability.
Implementation Method 1
a first linear actuator is coupled between the first hull and its respective mount and a second linear actuator is coupled between the second hull and its respective mount
Implementation Method 2
providing a large buoyant surface to support the weight of the motor and propulsion assembly
Data Source
AI summary
A foldable floating vessel providing a large surface area and heavy payload capability when deployed into a liquid, such as a manure lagoon. The vessel may be folded for transport using linear actuators to fold two hulls of the vessel from a first position substantially horizontal to a second position substantially vertical. Driving and steering assemblies are provided on a center frame to which the foldable hulls are pivotably connected.