Hidden-type shower door with small rail sliding assembly
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional shower doors with dampers require increased rail height for concealment, affecting aesthetics and increasing manufacturing costs, or expose hanging clips when not concealed, also impacting appearance.
Innovation Solution
A concealed small-rail sliding assembly for shower doors, featuring a sliding assembly housed within a defined cavity formed by parallel top and cover plates, with sliding wheels and damper brackets, allowing the assembly and hanging clips to be hidden, thus maintaining aesthetics without height increase.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the rail height is increased to conceal the damper, then the damper is hidden and operation is stable, but the manufacturing cost increases and aesthetics are adversely affected
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from a conventional single-plane rail structure to a three-dimensional cavity structure. The damper is relocated from the exterior of the rail to the interior cavity space, utilizing the vertical dimension created by the cavity's depth. This allows the damper to be concealed without increasing the rail's external height, resolving the contradiction between stability (requiring damper installation) and aesthetics (requiring low rail height).
Solution Approach 2:
The damper is nested within the cavity formed by the rail body, first cover plate, and second cover plate. The cavity acts as a container that houses the damper internally, similar to nested dolls. This nesting approach conceals the damper within the rail structure without requiring additional external space or height increase, thereby maintaining both operational stability and aesthetic appearance.
2Length of stationary object
If the rail height is not increased and hanging clip is arranged below the rail, then manufacturing cost is reduced, but the hanging clip is exposed and aesthetics are adversely affected
Solution Approach 1:
The hanging clips are nested within the cavity space along with the damper. The cavity serves as a unified containment structure that hides both the functional components (damper and hanging clips) from external view. This eliminates the need to position hanging clips below the rail, thereby preventing exposure and maintaining aesthetic appearance without requiring height increase.
3Ease of manufacture
If a conventional rail structure is used, then manufacturing is simple, but components cannot be concealed and aesthetics are adversely affected
Solution Approach 1:
The rail structure is segmented into distinct functional components: the rail body forming the cavity, the first cover plate, and the second cover plate. This segmentation allows each component to be manufactured separately using conventional processes, then assembled to create the concealed cavity structure. The segmentation maintains manufacturing simplicity while enabling the aesthetic benefit of concealed components.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the damper and hanging clips into a single concealed space within the cavity. Rather than requiring separate housing structures for each component, both are accommodated within the same cavity formed by the rail assembly. This merging approach simplifies the overall structure while achieving concealment, maintaining ease of manufacture through a unified design approach.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3a
AI summary
A shower door with a hidden small rail sliding assembly, the door comprising an upper rail assembly (10), a sliding assembly (20), a movable door assembly (30) and a fixed door assembly (40). The upper rail assembly (10) comprises an upper rail (1001) and damper triggering members (1020) installed on the upper rail (1001). The sliding assembly (20) comprises sliding wheels (2040), sliding wheel brackets (2010), a damper (2030) and a damper bracket (2020). The movable door assembly (30) comprises a movable door panel (301) and hanging clamps (3020) fixed at the top edge of the movable door panel (301). The upper rail (1001) is provided with a top plate (10011); a first baffle plate (10012) and a second baffle plate (10013) that are parallel to each other extend downwards from two sides of the top plate (10011); the bottom surface of the first baffle plate (10012) and the bottom surface of the second baffle plate (10013) are flush; an inner side face of the first baffle plate (10012) horizontally extends inwards to form a first side sliding rail (10014); a fixed door panel clamping groove (10017) is provided below the first side sliding rail (10014); the bottom of the second baffle plate (10013) is bent inwards to form a horizontal second side sliding rail (10015); the bottom of a sliding rail face of the first side sliding rail (10014) is higher than a sliding rail face of the second side sliding rail (10015); a sliding cavity (10016) is formed by enclosure of the top plate (10011) and the first (10012) and second (10013) baffle plates; and the sliding assembly (20), the top edge of the movable door panel (301) and the hanging clamps (3020) are integrally contained in the sliding cavity (10016).