Hybrid Scaffold System with Integrated Wedge and Swing Head
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional scaffold systems face safety concerns due to significant play between rosettes and wedges before installation, leading to instability and potential collapse, and steel wedges can fall, causing injuries.
Innovation Solution
A hybrid scaffold system featuring a swing head assembly with rotatably coupled pin and internal wedge assembly, allowing for secure attachment and detachment of horizontal members to vertical members via radially arranged cut-outs in the rosette, providing a positive locking mechanism and reducing assembly time.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If conventional tube and coupler scaffolds are used with loose wedges, then the scaffold can be assembled in multiple directions with high versatility, but there is significant play between rosette and wedge before installation leading to safety concerns and instability
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the wedge and head into a single integrated unit where the wedge is permanently attached to the head. This eliminates the loose wedge that causes play and instability while maintaining the ability to assemble in multiple directions. The integrated design ensures the wedge cannot separate from the head, preventing the safety issues of loose wedges working free or falling.
Solution Approach 2:
The wedge is pre-installed and fixed to the head before the horizontal member is connected to the vertical standard. This preliminary action eliminates the gap and play that exist in conventional systems where the loose wedge is only positioned during assembly. The pre-fixed wedge provides immediate stability upon connection.
2Ease of manufacture
If loose wedges are used in conventional scaffolds, then assembly can be performed with simple components, but the wedges can work free when workers traverse the platform causing scaffold instability and collapse
Solution Approach 1:
The wedge and head are manufactured as a single integrated component, eliminating the risk of the wedge working free or separating during platform traversal. The integrated design maintains manufacturing simplicity while fundamentally solving the stability issue by ensuring the wedge remains permanently positioned relative to the head.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent converts the potential harm of loose wedges working free into a benefit by permanently fixing the wedge to the head. This transformation ensures that the wedge's position is locked, preventing it from working free while maintaining the mechanical advantage and ease of assembly that wedges provide.
3Ease of repair
If conventional scaffolds use separate wedges and heads, then components can be individually replaced, but steel wedges can fall from the scaffold injuring workers below
Solution Approach 1:
By integrating the wedge and head into a single component, the patent eliminates the risk of the wedge falling and injuring workers. The integrated design maintains repairability by allowing the entire head-wedge assembly to be replaced as a unit, or the horizontal member to be replaced, while preventing the wedge from becoming a separate falling hazard.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the wedge from being a separate loose component and integrates it into the head structure. This extraction of the wedge from independent status eliminates the hazard of it falling, while the overall assembly can still be replaced or serviced as needed.
4Adaptability or versatility
If conventional scaffolds use multiple loose components, then assembly can be flexible, but there is significant play between components giving rise to safety concerns
Solution Approach 1:
The integration of wedge and head into a single precision-manufactured component eliminates the play and gaps that occur between separate loose components. The integrated design ensures precise fit and connection when the horizontal member is attached to the vertical standard, while maintaining the ability to configure the scaffold in multiple directions through the rosette openings.
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 hybrid scaffold system enhances safety and flexibility, allowing for stable and rapid assembly of platforms, including cantilevered and elevated structures, while meeting 100% tie-off requirements and supporting heavy loads, with seismic qualification and reduced risk of component loss.
Implementation Method 1
The swing head assembly is rotatably coupled to the rosette at a revolution joint
Implementation Method 2
A hybrid scaffold system featuring a swing head assembly with rotatably coupled pin and internal wedge assembly, allowing for secure attachment and detachment of horizontal members to vertical members
Data Source
AI summary
A swing head assembly with a swing head and pin affixed to a first horizontal member. A vertical member with a rosette positioned in coaxial alignment therewith. The rosette has radially arranged cut-outs for receiving the swing head assembly. The swing head assembly is rotatably coupled to the rosette. A second horizontal member has a horizontal member head at an end thereof. The rosette is also able to also receive mating elements of the horizontal member head, the second horizontal member having therein an internal wedge assembly with a wedge portion that extends and retracts from the horizontal member head to lock and unlock the horizontal member head to the rosette. The invention further includes a horizontal member having a swing head assembly at one end and an internal wedge assembly at the second end thereof.