Keeper Apparatus for Gate Alignment and Pinch Hazard Reduction
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional gated barriers, such as those used at staircase tops and kitchen entrances, often fail to securely maintain the gate in a plane with the frame, leading to potential pinching hazards and instability, especially at the lower corner portions where fingers can get caught.
Innovation Solution
The introduction of a keeper apparatus that engages between the gate and the frame's lower member and second end, allowing the gate to swing while maintaining alignment, with keepers pivoting to an out-of-the-way position to facilitate movement and featuring a design that eliminates metal components at the lower corner, enhancing safety by minimizing finger pinching.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the gate is allowed to swing freely on the frame, then the gate can be opened and closed easily, but the gate may deviate from the common plane with the frame causing pinching hazards
Solution Approach 1:
The keeper acts as an intermediary component between the gate and frame lower member. It maintains the gate in the common plane with the frame while allowing swinging motion. The keeper's engaging and disengaging mechanism provides the mediating function that simultaneously enables safe operation and prevents pinching hazards.
Solution Approach 2:
The keeper is designed to pivot between an engaged position (when gate is closed) and a disengaged position (when gate opens). This dynamic behavior allows the system to adapt: the keeper constrains the gate to the common plane during closed state for safety, and pivots out of the way during opening to permit free swinging motion.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If a keeper apparatus is added to maintain gate alignment with the frame, then pinching hazards are reduced, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The gate system is segmented into functional components: the gate itself, the frame, the latch mechanism, and the keeper apparatus. This segmentation allows the keeper to be designed as a separate, simple pivoting element rather than integrating complexity into the main gate structure, making the overall system easier to manufacture and maintain.
Solution Approach 2:
The alignment-maintaining function is extracted from the gate structure and implemented as a separate keeper component. This extraction allows the gate to remain simple while the keeper provides the specialized function of maintaining common plane alignment, reducing overall system complexity through functional separation.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If metal components are eliminated at the lower corner of the gate, then safety is improved by minimizing pinching, but the structural strength may be reduced
Solution Approach 1:
Metal components that create pinching hazards are extracted from the lower corner region of the gate. The keeper apparatus provides the necessary structural support and alignment function without requiring metal components in the hazardous lower corner area, thus eliminating pinching risks while maintaining structural integrity through alternative material or design choices.
Data Source
AI summary
A keeper apparatus engaged to the lower free end swinging corner portion of a gate, not to either of the upper and lower corner portions having the axis on which the gate swings, and not to the upper free end swinging corner portion where the gate has a main latch. The keeper apparatus joins the shortened ends of a horizontal gate support member and a vertical gate support member where, prior to engaging the keeper apparatus on the shortened ends, such intentionally manufactured shortened ends are free and spaced from each other.