Hinge Pin Length Variation for Tail Lift Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing tail lift connection systems for commercial vehicles and trailers require multiple people to align and attach, due to the dimensions and weight, making it difficult for a single person to manage the pins and sockets of the hinges effectively.
Innovation Solution
The design features a hinge system with a longer pin having a cylindrical section and a tapering end, allowing sequential alignment and attachment, enabling a single person to align and attach the tail lift by using the longer pin to guide the alignment with the sockets, and ensuring stable and torsion-free pivoting through a common axis of rotation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple hinges with pins and sockets are used to connect the loading platform, then the connection stability and guidance during rotational movement are improved, but the alignment complexity and difficulty increase requiring multiple people
Solution Approach 1:
The connection system is segmented into multiple hinges with different pin lengths. The first hinge has a longer pin that extends beyond the bushing, while the second hinge has a shorter pin that is fully received by its bushing. This segmentation allows sequential alignment - the longer pin serves as a guide for partial insertion, enabling the operator to align one hinge at a time rather than requiring simultaneous alignment of all hinges, thus reducing the number of people needed from multiple to just one.
Solution Approach 2:
The longer pin of the first hinge is designed to protrude beyond its bushing, creating a preliminary alignment feature. This extended pin allows the loading platform to be partially inserted and positioned on the first hinge before the second hinge is fully aligned. This preliminary positioning action simplifies the overall alignment process by breaking it into manageable sequential steps rather than requiring complex simultaneous alignment of all components.
2Reliability
If the pin and socket are required to be perfectly concentric for proper alignment, then the rotational movement guidance is improved, but the ease of assembly deteriorates requiring precise alignment
Solution Approach 1:
The design changes the geometric parameters of the pin, specifically creating a tapered section on the longer pin. This tapered section has a larger diameter at one end and transitions to a smaller diameter, allowing the pin to be inserted into the bushing even when perfect concentricity is not achieved. The taper accommodates minor misalignments while the cylindrical section maintains proper rotational guidance, thus relaxing the assembly precision requirements without compromising rotational movement quality.
Solution Approach 2:
The pin design incorporates asymmetry through the tapered section, which has varying diameter along its length. This asymmetric geometry allows the pin to self-align and accommodate imperfect concentricity during assembly. The tapered portion can engage the bushing at different radial positions, making the assembly process more tolerant of alignment variations while the cylindrical section ensures proper rotational guidance once assembled.
Data Source
Figure 1~4
AI summary
In a device for connecting a loading platform of a commercial vehicle or a motor vehicle trailer to a stop section of a loading area of the commercial vehicle or the motor vehicle trailer, wherein the loading platform is pivotally and detachably connected to the stop section by at least two hinges, wherein the hinges have a common axis of rotation (A) and each is formed from a pin and a socket that can be attached to the pin, it is provided that a hinge arranged along the axis of rotation (A) has a longer pin than the next hinge.