Friction-Driven Treadmill Belt Speed Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional treadmills, both electric and non-electric, lack the ability to allow users to easily adjust speed during exercise, leading to safety concerns and limited training effectiveness, as users cannot naturally speed up or slow down like in outdoor exercises, and existing solutions are cumbersome or occupy excessive space.
Innovation Solution
An exercise apparatus with a platform featuring a front roller, rear roller, and endless belt, equipped with a magnetic resistance device and a restricting device that allows users to perform low-resistance walking or jogging and high-resistance weight training, enabling natural speed adjustment and safe sprinting without the need for additional wearables or space-consuming setups.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the belt speed is increased for sprint exercise, then the training effectiveness is improved, but the safety risk increases because users cannot keep up with the belt speed
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of the motor driving the belt at high speed and requiring the user to keep up, the patent inverts the control mechanism: the user's foot motion directly drives the belt through a friction wheel, allowing the belt speed to naturally match the user's running speed. This enables sprint training at high speeds without safety risks, as the belt cannot exceed the user's capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system allows the user to self-regulate belt speed through their own running motion. The friction wheel mechanism automatically adjusts belt speed to match the user's foot strike rate and force, eliminating the need for external motor control and enabling natural speed adjustment during exercise.
2Ease of operation
If a non-electric treadmill is used to allow natural speed adjustment, then the ease of operation is improved, but the maximum running speed is limited because the user's forward speed exceeds the belt sliding speed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent reverses the traditional non-electric treadmill mechanism: instead of the user pushing the belt backward while standing stationary, the user's forward running motion drives the belt forward through the friction wheel. This inversion allows the belt speed to match the user's forward speed, enabling sprinting without the user falling off the front.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the traditional belt-driven mechanism with a friction wheel system that transfers momentum from the user's foot to the belt. This mechanical substitution enables more efficient power transfer and allows the belt to accelerate faster, matching the user's sprinting speed capability.
3Reliability
If wearing members and ropes are added to restrict user forward motion, then the safety is improved, but the device complexity increases and space is occupied
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and eliminates the need for external safety devices like wearing members and ropes by fundamentally changing the belt drive mechanism. The friction wheel system inherently prevents the user from falling off by matching belt speed to user speed, removing the need for additional safety components.
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides inherent safety through self-regulation: the friction wheel mechanism automatically ensures the belt speed matches the user's running capability, eliminating the need for external safety devices and reducing overall system complexity.
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
Enables users to naturally adjust speed during exercise, enhancing training effectiveness and safety by allowing seamless speed changes and reducing the need for external devices or increased space, while providing adjustable resistance for various exercise types.
Implementation Method 1
a magnetic resistance device (710) configured to adjust a resistance of the endless belt
Data Source
AI summary
An exercise apparatus comprises a platform having a front roller, a rear roller and an endless belt mounted around the front roller and the rear roller for allowing a user to perform a first exercise type of a relatively lower resistance or a second exercise type of a relatively higher resistance. A front frame is mounted at a front side of the platform and has at least one holding portion adapted to be grasped by the user. One or more control interfaces controls the first exercise type and the second exercise type.