Integrated Door-Net Structure for Side-by-Side Vehicle Safety
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current side-by-side all-terrain vehicle designs require inconvenient and time-consuming safety features like doors and nets that hinder easy ingress and egress, often leading to their removal due to operational difficulties.
Innovation Solution
A net structure with connections to the door, roll cage frame, and vehicle frame, maintaining tautness along a defined axis forward of the head area, allowing for one-handed operation and easy access without compromising safety.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional doors and nets are used to satisfy safety requirements, then safety containment is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates due to multiple time-consuming processes and two-hand operation requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the door and net into an integrated door-net assembly where the net is attached to the door structure. This merging allows the net to move with the door, eliminating the need for separate operation of two safety features and reducing the operational steps required while maintaining both safety functions
Solution Approach 2:
The door structure is designed to serve multiple functions: it provides physical barrier protection, supports the net for additional containment, and enables easy one-handed operation. The integrated assembly makes the door system universal in handling both safety containment and ease of access requirements simultaneously
2Reliability
If conventional doors and nets are used to satisfy safety requirements, then safety containment is improved, but ingress and egress speed deteriorates due to operational complexity
Solution Approach 1:
By merging the net attachment to the door, the system allows occupants to enter and exit through a single door operation rather than managing separate door and net mechanisms, thereby increasing ingress and egress speed while preserving safety containment
Solution Approach 2:
The net is segmented into multiple sections or panels that can flex and move independently. This segmentation allows the net to accommodate door movement and occupant passage more efficiently, reducing operational delays and improving access speed
3Reliability
If conventional net structures are used, then safety containment is improved, but device complexity increases due to multiple connection points and adjustment mechanisms
Solution Approach 1:
The net connections are merged with the door structure and roll cage frame, eliminating the need for separate adjustment mechanisms. The net is directly attached to existing structural elements, reducing the number of additional components and simplifying the overall device complexity while maintaining safety containment
Data Source
AI summary
A net structure for a vehicle includes a first connection to a door arranged in a side opening of the vehicle for selectively closing a door opening portion of the side opening, a second connection to a roll cage frame at or adjacent an upper portion of a passenger seating compartment and a third connection to a vehicle frame of the vehicle. The roll cage frame at least partially defines the side opening. The net structure further includes a tautness axis defined between the second connection and the third connection that is substantially forward of a head area of the passenger compartment with tautness maintained along the tautness axis.