L-Shaped Profile Flooring Assembly with Drainage Holes
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing flooring assemblies face challenges such as high production costs, complex manufacturing processes, difficulty in predicting stiffness and load-carrying capacity, and inefficient rainwater drainage due to fixed profile lengths and interengaging male and female portions, which limit design flexibility and increase material usage.
Innovation Solution
The assembly features L-shaped profiles made of strong materials like steel or aluminum, allowing for customizable width and length, with filling elements supported by the profiles' first legs, enabling easy calculation of stiffness and load-carrying capacity, and incorporating features like drainage holes and serrations for improved rainwater flow and anti-slip properties.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If interengaging male and female portions are used to connect deck portions, then structural connection is achieved, but the number of material layers increases to four layers between substrates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the complex interengaging male and female portions from the connection system. Instead, it uses a simplified support bar arrangement where deck portions are directly supported by vertical support bars, eliminating the need for multiple interlocking material layers while maintaining structural connection strength.
2Strength
If upright flanges form a U-shaped recess to receive insert bodies, then structural support is provided, but the distance between adjacent insert bodies becomes relatively large
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the support function into separate vertical support bars rather than using continuous U-shaped recesses. This allows insert bodies to be positioned closer together along the longitudinal direction while each insert body still receives adequate vertical support from its own support bar, reducing the distance between adjacent insert bodies.
3Stability of the object's composition
If fixed length supporting bars and filling bars are used, then structural stability is achieved, but the supporting structure cannot easily be enlarged and production becomes complicated
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs adjustable-length support bars that can be modified to accommodate different span requirements and structural configurations. This dynamic adjustment capability allows the supporting structure to be easily enlarged or reconfigured without requiring complete redesign, while maintaining structural stability through proper support bar placement and length selection.
4Device complexity
If rainwater drainage is provided only at longitudinal ends of frame portions, then structural simplicity is maintained, but drainage efficiency is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent incorporates drainage features at multiple locations along the support bars, not just at the longitudinal ends. By providing drainage holes or channels at intermediate positions along the support bars, rainwater can drain more efficiently from multiple points, improving overall drainage efficiency while adding only minimal complexity to the structural design.
Data Source
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AI summary
An assembly comprises at least one supporting structure and at least two filling elements supported by the supporting structure. The supporting structure comprises at least a first and a second elongated profile. Each profile comprising at least a first leg and a second leg. The first legs of the profiles extend in a same plane, whilst the second legs are spaced apart and extend substantially parallel to each other, wherein at least one filling element is supported by a first leg of the first elongated profile. The at least one filling element is located in a space bounded in a direction perpendicular to longitudinal sides of the second legs by the second leg of the first elongated profile and the second leg of the adjacent second elongated profile.