Inflatable Airbag Landing System with Crumple Tubes
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing amusement devices using large inflatable airbags for human free falls face issues such as slow re-inflation times, limited useful landing area, potential for tube separation, and safety hazards like bounce-back and limb snaring, especially in non-circular applications and large landing areas.
Innovation Solution
An inflatable slide with a free fall mechanism into an airbag device featuring crumple tubes connected by a top sheet, eliminating the need for a surrounding wall, and using baffles and adjustable breather holes to prevent tube separation and ensure a safe, adaptable landing surface across various shapes and sizes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If large air-filled bags are used for stuntmen, then safety is improved, but re-inflation time increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The airbag device is divided into multiple separate airbags arranged in an array rather than using a single large airbag. Each airbag can be independently inflated and deflated, allowing faster turnover while maintaining overall safety coverage for the landing zone.
2Area of stationary object
If a single large airbag is used, then coverage area is improved, but useful landing area is limited to the center
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple airbags are arranged in an array to provide distributed landing zones across the entire coverage area. This segmentation allows safe landing at various positions throughout the array, not just at a central location, as each airbag independently provides cushioning support.
3Ease of manufacture
If air-filled tubes are used without a surrounding wall, then ease of deployment is improved, but tube separation occurs under falling body weight
Solution Approach 1:
Adjacent airbags are connected through flexible diaphragms that merge their structures while maintaining independence. This combination provides structural stability to prevent separation under load, while the flexible connection allows the system to remain simple and easy to deploy without requiring rigid surrounding walls.
4Force
If high-pressure airbags are used, then deceleration capability is improved, but bounce-back increases creating safety hazards
Solution Approach 1:
Different regions of the airbag array can have different pressure characteristics. The airbags are designed with specific pressure ranges that provide adequate deceleration force while minimizing rebound effects. The local quality of each airbag's pressure characteristic allows optimization of both deceleration capability and bounce-back reduction.
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 solution provides a safe, quick-to-deploy, and adaptable airbag system that prevents tube separation, minimizes bounce-back, and ensures a soft landing across the entire surface area, enhancing safety and usability for human free falls from various heights and shapes.
Implementation Method 1
The high-pressure chamber surrounds the center chamber and receives the pressure spike from the compression of the center chamber from the falling person
Implementation Method 2
an air-filled, energy absorbing deceleration device on the ground
Implementation Method 3
The tubes can separate when a falling body lands on the top surface, the body falls between the tubes and effectively gets stopped at the support base of the tubes
Implementation Method 4
Air communication between the sections is sustained by vented baffles, which are essentially baffles with holes
Data Source
AI summary
A slide and process of using the slide for humans' amusement, recreation and entertainment. The slide is an inflatable apparatus comprising a slide device and an airbag device. The slide device is an inflatable bag having a slide segment. The airbag device has a bottom bag separated into sections by vented baffles. The bottom bag is interconnected to top bags in the form of crumple tubess, which in turn are connected to a top cover sheet. In use, a person slides off the end of the slide segment and free falls to the airbag device.