Quick-Connect Heater Hose Fitting With Mechanical Orientation Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current quick-connect end-form fittings for hoses or tubes lack orientation control, leading to misalignment and rotation issues, which can result in improper installation and premature wear of sealing components, causing leakage.
Innovation Solution
A quick-connect end-form fitting with an integrated orientation control feature, comprising a tube and an auxiliary component that are deformed to securely engage each other, preventing rotation and ensuring proper alignment through a corrugated joint and locking mechanism.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional quick-connect end-form fittings are used without orientation control features, then the device complexity is reduced and manufacturing is simpler, but misalignment and rotation occur leading to improper installation and premature wear of sealing components
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies asymmetry by providing at least one of the male or female quick-connect end-form fittings with an asymmetric cross-sectional shape. This asymmetric geometry prevents rotation and ensures proper orientation during installation, thereby improving connection reliability without requiring complex additional orientation control features. The asymmetric shape naturally guides correct alignment while maintaining relatively simple device structure.
2Manufacturing precision
If orientation control features are added to quick-connect end-form fittings, then misalignment and rotation are prevented improving installation accuracy, but the device complexity and manufacturing difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The asymmetric cross-sectional shape serves dual purposes: it provides orientation control for precise installation alignment while simultaneously being manufacturable using standard tube forming and extrusion processes. The asymmetric geometry is integrated into the basic fitting structure rather than being added as a separate complex mechanism, thus achieving manufacturing precision without significantly increasing manufacturing difficulty.
3Ease of operation
If hose or tube is allowed to rotate about the finished connection, then ease of installation is improved, but premature wear of sealing O-ring occurs and leakage results
Solution Approach 1:
The asymmetric cross-sectional shape prevents rotation of the hose or tube about the finished connection by providing a unique orientation that only fits in one rotational position. This eliminates premature wear of the sealing O-ring caused by rotation while still maintaining ease of installation, as the asymmetric shape naturally guides correct orientation during the connection process without requiring complex alignment procedures.
Data Source
AI summary
An end-form fitting includes a tube and an auxiliary component disposed around the tube. One of the tube and the auxiliary component is deformed to cause the auxiliary component to engage the tube in order to militate against relative movement between the tube and the auxiliary component. The auxiliary component includes an array of surface irregularities formed therein and configured to engage an outer circumferential surface of the tube to form a corrugated joint therebetween. The auxiliary component is formed to include a radially outwardly extending orientation structure for establishing a rotational orientation of the end-form fitting when being coupled to a complimentary end-form fitting.