Grip Tongs With Elastic Spring For One-Touch Clamping
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional tongs require continuous and excessive manual effort to maintain a grip, leading to hand fatigue and difficulty for the elderly, infirm, and children, as they need to repetitively push an operation lever to clamp and move items, degrading the product's reliability.
Innovation Solution
A grip tongs apparatus with a manipulation lever connected by a wire to a push handle, utilizing an elastic spring mechanism that allows the tong portions to be rotated and parted with minimal user effort, enabling one-touch operation to clamp and release items.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Force
If the operation lever is continuously pushed to maintain grip on items, then the gripping force is maintained, but hand fatigue increases and accessibility for elderly or infirm users deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The elastic member automatically restores the tong portions to the gripping state after release, eliminating the need for continuous manual effort. The system serves itself by using the stored elastic energy to maintain and restore the gripping function without user intervention.
Solution Approach 2:
The operation lever is pushed only periodically to part the tong portions during movement, rather than maintaining continuous pressure. This converts continuous force application into intermittent action, reducing hand fatigue while maintaining effective gripping when needed.
2Reliability
If the operation lever is pushed repetitively to clamp and move items, then the clamping function is achieved, but the time required for operation increases
Solution Approach 1:
The elastic member is pre-compressed by the manipulation lever during the parting motion, storing energy in advance. When the lever is released, this pre-stored energy immediately restores the tong portions to the clamping position, eliminating the need for separate clamping actions and reducing total operation time.
3Reliability
If the manipulation lever is designed to be pushed for clamping, then the clamping mechanism works, but accessibility for users with weak grip deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of pushing the manipulation lever to clamp items, the system inverts the logic: pushing the lever parts the tong portions, and releasing it automatically clamps them using elastic restoration. This inversion makes the operation accessible to users with weak grip strength.
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
Reduces hand fatigue and improves reliability by allowing easy one-touch operation to grip and release items, making it easier for all users to handle items without continuous manual effort.
Implementation Method 1
an elastic spring installed between the support ring and the manipulation lever, compressed by the manipulation lever, and then restored to an original state so as to push the manipulation lever
Data Source
AI summary
When the push handle is manipulated, the manipulation lever is pulled by the wire so that the tong portions are parted. When manipulation of the push handle is released, the tong portions are pressed against each other so that the item may be easily fixed between the tong portions. When the manipulation of the push handle is released, the tong portions are rotated and automatically clamp the item located therebetween so that it is unnecessary to continuously manipulate the push handle to fix the item between the tong portions and it is possible to reduce an amount of grip used as well as reducing a manipulation time of the push handle and to prevent fatigability accumulating in hands or damage to hands due to the reduction in manipulation time of the push handle.