Frame for an electric heating device, comprising an elastically deformable element
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing electric heating devices in motor vehicles experience noise and mechanical issues due to elastic elements that cause vibrations, leading to inefficient heating and potential breakage during engine startup in cold weather, especially when engine coolant calories are insufficient for rapid heating and demisting.
Innovation Solution
A frame with a housing that includes travel reduction elements with a ramp shape, allowing for secure insertion and positioning of heating elements without requiring significant adjustment, reducing insertion forces and preventing deformation, while maintaining stability and flexibility to avoid noise and mechanical failure.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If elastic elements are used to hold heating elements in housing, then heating elements are secured in place, but vibrations cause noise and potential breakage during driving
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the elastic elements from the housing structure and replaces them with a retention groove that passively holds the heating element in place. This extraction eliminates the source of vibration-induced noise and breakage while maintaining the heating element's stability during driving.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of using active elastic elements that exert restoring force on the heating element, the patent uses a passive retention groove structure where the heating element itself engages with the groove geometry. This inversion transforms the retention mechanism from active to passive, eliminating vibrations.
2Ease of operation
If housing dimensions are increased to allow heating element insertion, then heating elements can be installed, but heating element movement is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The housing is segmented into distinct functional zones: an insertion path with larger dimensions that facilitates easy heating element installation, and a retention zone with a groove structure that provides precise positioning and stability. This segmentation allows the housing to simultaneously accommodate both insertion ease and position stability.
Solution Approach 2:
The retention groove acts as an intermediary structure between the heating element and the housing walls. It provides a dedicated engagement feature that ensures stable positioning without requiring the heating element to be tightly fitted against the housing walls, thus maintaining both ease of insertion and position stability.
3Reliability
If elastic elements exert restoring force on heating elements, then heating elements are pressed against housing wall, but vibrations weaken or break elastic elements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent completely removes the elastic elements from the design, replacing them with a rigid retention groove structure. This eliminates the durability issue of elastic elements weakening or breaking under vibration while maintaining effective heating element retention through the groove geometry.
Solution Approach 2:
The retention groove is designed as a permanent, rigid structural feature of the housing rather than a replaceable elastic component. This transforms the retention mechanism from a consumable elastic element to a durable integral part of the housing, eliminating the need for replacement due to fatigue.
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3~4
AI summary
The invention relates to a frame (3) for an electric heating device (1), comprising at least one housing (7) intended to receive a heating element (5), said housing being defined by a plurality of longitudinal walls (23, 25) forming an insertion path for a heating element, and said insertion path being defined longitudinally by a back wall extending opposite an opening through which the heating element can be inserted into the housing. According to the invention, at least one of the longitudinal walls comprises a displacement reducing element (10) projecting from the wall. The displacement reducing element (10) comprises a ramp (11) that slopes gradually into the housing, towards the opposite longitudinal wall, said displacement reducing element (10) being arranged such that the downstream end (14, 15) thereof extends at a distance from the back wall (21).