Interlocking Barrel Tie-Down Brackets for Irregular Drum Arrays
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Solution Overview
Problem
Transporting cylindrical containers such as oil drums is challenging due to their imprecise manufacturing, leading to disuniformities in shape and size, which complicates secure mounting and can result in costly spills during transport.
Innovation Solution
A dedicated bracket system with a ring-shaped body and radially extending couplings that securely fasten to the containers' ends, allowing adjacent brackets to overlap and interconnect with fasteners, ensuring stability and compatibility with varying container geometries.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If standardized containers are used for transport, then transport efficiency is improved, but manufacturing imprecision causes disuniformities that complicate secure mounting
Solution Approach 1:
The bracket design incorporates adjustable parameters including elongated slots that allow positional adjustment of coupling elements, and a generally ring-shaped body with flexible positioning capability. These parameter changes enable the bracket to adapt to containers with varying dimensions and shapes, accommodating manufacturing imprecision while maintaining secure mounting capability
Solution Approach 2:
The mounting system is divided into separate components: individual brackets for each container, separate coupling elements, and independent fastening mechanisms. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently and facilitates adjustment to accommodate dimensional variations in containers, resolving the contradiction between standardized transport and manufacturing imprecision
2Reliability
If special expertise and costly methods are used to secure containers, then security against spills is improved, but cost and time consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The bracket system is designed to be self-aligning and self-adjusting through features such as elongated slots that automatically compensate for dimensional variations, and coupling elements that naturally position themselves during installation. This eliminates the need for specialized expertise while maintaining reliable spill prevention through proper container securing
3Ease of manufacture
If imprecise manufacturing is accepted to reduce costs, then container production efficiency is improved, but secure mounting becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The bracket design serves multiple functions simultaneously: it provides structural support, accommodates dimensional variations through adjustable features, enables secure attachment to diverse container shapes, and facilitates easy installation. The generally ring-shaped body with radially extending couplings can universally engage with containers of varying dimensions, making mounting easy despite imprecise manufacturing
Data Source
AI summary
A bracket for securing a container or an array of co-planarly adjacent containers, such as cylindrical barrels or oil drums to a transport vehicle. Each bracket can include a generally ring-shaped circular, planar body having a diameter sized to substantially match the outer diameter of the circular end of the barrel. Six movable couplings can extend radially outwardly from the peripheral sidewall of the bracket body at angularly spaced apart, but adjustable locations. The axial positions of the couplings can be reciprocatingly staggered so that couplings extending from adjacent brackets can overlap and interconnect to one another, thereby conjoining the brackets across the array. Hooked cables can secure the vehicle to the couplings