Interlocking Playground Flooring With Segmented Tabs
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional fall protecting flooring elements require a strictly planar ground for interlocking and do not prevent displacement or disassembly, leading to aesthetic issues and potential safety hazards due to uneven ground deformation.
Innovation Solution
A fall protecting flooring element with a flat rectangular body featuring alternating connection tabs and recesses on its sides, supported by plates that ensure stable interlocking and prevent lateral separation, allowing for flexible installation on non-planar surfaces and enhancing aesthetic appeal by covering edge indentations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If conventional flooring elements are used with simple interlocking patterns, then ease of installation is improved, but stability and resistance to displacement deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The connection pattern is segmented into distinct components: connection tabs extending from one element and corresponding connection recesses in adjacent elements. This segmentation allows for simple form-fitting interlocking while maintaining stability through the distributed engagement points along the edges.
Solution Approach 2:
The connection tabs are nested into the connection recesses of adjacent flooring elements, creating a interlocked assembly. This nesting mechanism provides both ease of installation through simple insertion and reliable stability through the engaged configuration that resists lateral displacement.
2Strength
If flooring elements are designed to interlock on planar ground, then interconnection strength is improved, but adaptability to non-planar surfaces deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The connection tabs and recesses are designed with specific local geometries that enable form-fitting connections. The local adaptation of these connection features allows the flooring elements to maintain interconnection strength while accommodating variations in ground plane through the flexibility of the resilient material and the distributed nature of the connection points.
Solution Approach 2:
The flooring elements are made of resilient material that can deform elastically to accommodate non-planar surfaces. This parameter change in the material properties allows the elements to maintain their interlocking configuration while adapting to varying ground conditions, preserving both connection strength and adaptability.
3Reliability
If connection tabs extend fully to the edge of flooring elements, then interlocking capability is improved, but aesthetic appearance deteriorates due to visible edge indentations
Solution Approach 1:
The connection tabs are extracted from the main body of the flooring element, extending only partially from the edges rather than spanning the full length. This extraction allows the tabs to provide sufficient interlocking capability for structural reliability while removing the aesthetic drawback of edge indentations caused by full-edge extensions.
Data Source
AI summary
Fall protecting flooring element that comprises a flat rectangular body of a resilient Material having a lower face, an upper face, four sides, patterns at its four sides that enable interlocking several similar flooring elements by form-fitting connections. Respective short straight corner sections are provided that constitute a part of the side of the concerned side. The patterns comprise alternating sequence of connection tabs and connection recesses. The connection tabs have identical profiles but inverse of the profiles of the connection recesses. A plurality of fall protecting floor elements can be connected together to form a flooring.