Inline Cable Housing With Locking Barrels for Bend Retention
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional electronic cables are resilient and tend to return to their original shape after bending, making it difficult for users to maintain a desired posture, leading to frustration and the need for workarounds like tying or taping to keep the cable bent.
Innovation Solution
An in-line housing system with movable barrels and detent elements that allow the cable to be locked into a specific posture, enabling or disabling rotational movement based on the arrangement of the barrels, thereby maintaining the desired bend without the need for external fixation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If cables are designed with high resilience to return to original shape after bending, then cable durability and flexibility are improved, but the ability to maintain a desired bent posture deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an in-line housing as an intermediary device between the cable and the user's hands. This housing contains movable barrels with detent elements that mechanically interact with the cable to maintain its bent posture, while the cable itself retains its resilient properties for durability and flexibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The housing incorporates movable barrels that can transition between different positions (neutral and bent) to dynamically adapt to the cable's state. The detent elements engage at specific positions to lock the cable in the desired posture, while allowing movement when needed.
2Adaptability or versatility
If cables are made resilient to return to original shape, then mechanical performance and flexibility are improved, but the need for external fixation methods (tying, taping) increases
Solution Approach 1:
The in-line housing serves as a mediator that provides the posture-maintaining function internally, eliminating the need for external fixation methods like tying or taping. The housing's mechanical structure with detent elements directly engages the cable to hold it in position.
Solution Approach 2:
The housing system is self-contained and self-operating. Once the cable is inserted and the housing is manipulated into the bent position, the detent elements automatically engage to maintain the posture without requiring additional external accessories or user intervention.
3Ease of operation
If movable barrels are used to maintain cable posture, then posture maintenance capability is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The housing employs a nested structure where barrels are positioned within the housing body, and detent elements are contained within the barrel structure. This nesting approach compactly organizes multiple functional elements within a small form factor, reducing overall device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The housing is segmented into distinct functional components: the main housing body, movable barrels, and detent elements. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently and simplifies the overall design by dividing the complex posture-maintaining function into manageable sub-functions.
Data Source
AI summary
An in-line housing for maintaining a cable posture includes first and second barrels having first and second bores, respectively. The first and second barrels are mounted for movement with respect to each other into and out of a neutral arrangement. When the first and second barrels are arranged in the neutral arrangement, the first and second bores are coaxially registered with each other and enable rotational movement of a cable with respect to the housing when the cable is applied to the first and second barrels. When the first and second barrels are arranged out of the neutral arrangement, the first and second bores are skewed with respect to each other and disable rotational movement of the cable with respect to the housing when the cable is applied to the first and second barrels.