Hinged Cargo Liner With Accordion Pleats for Moving Seat Backs
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cargo liners for SUVs and minivans fail to provide continuous protection for seat backs, which move angularly and translationally, creating gaps in protection when seat backs are adjusted or folded forward.
Innovation Solution
A cargo liner with integrally molded thermoplastic material featuring living hinges and accordion pleats that accommodate seat back movement, ensuring continuous protection by adjusting angles to maintain a barrier against dirt and fluids regardless of seat position.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If a conventional cargo liner is used to protect the cargo area floor, then the floor is protected from dirt and fluids, but the seat backs are not continuously protected when they move between positions
Solution Approach 1:
The cargo liner incorporates movable panels with hinges that allow the liner to dynamically adapt its configuration as seat backs move between upright and folded positions, maintaining continuous protection throughout the range of motion
Solution Approach 2:
The cargo liner is divided into separate panels (floor panel, seat back panels, and intermediate panels) that can move independently relative to each other, allowing each panel to respond to local movements while maintaining overall continuity
2Area of moving object
If seat backs are folded forward to extend cargo area surface area, then cargo capacity is increased, but gaps in protection appear between the cargo liner and seat back
Solution Approach 1:
The intermediate panels are designed to dynamically change their orientation and position as seat backs fold forward, ensuring that the protective barrier remains continuous even when the seat back is in the extended cargo position
Solution Approach 2:
Intermediate panels act as mediators between the floor panel and the moving seat back panels, filling the gap that would otherwise appear when seat backs are folded forward, thus maintaining protection continuity
3Ease of manufacture
If a single-piece cargo liner is used, then manufacturing is simplified, but the liner cannot accommodate translational and angular seat back movement
Solution Approach 1:
The liner is segmented into multiple hinged panels that can move independently, allowing the structure to adapt to seat back movements while still being manufactured as a single integrated piece through injection molding
Solution Approach 2:
The injection molding process parameters are adjusted to create varying wall thicknesses in different regions of the liner, with thinner sections at hinge locations to enable flexibility and movement while maintaining structural integrity in panel areas
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
The cargo liner effectively protects both the cargo area floor and seat backs with a continuous barrier, adapting to various seat configurations without gaps, using thermoplastic material and injection molding techniques to create flexible hinges.
Implementation Method 1
a cargo liner that is integrally molded of a thermoplastic material
Implementation Method 2
A hinge thickness, measured between a hinge upper surface and a hinge lower surface, is less than the thicknesses of the first and second panels. This creates a living hinge between the first and second panels.
Data Source
AI summary
An injection-molded cargo liner has a floor panel, at least one seat back panel and a plurality of accordion pleats joining the floor panel to the seat back panel. Living hinges between adjacent ones of the panels and pleats are made by reducing thickness. The pleats allow the seat back panel to travel with the seat back, as the seat back is moved forward and down. In this way, the cargo liner provides a continuous barrier against dirt and water.