Universal Landscape Box Cover With Bendable Snap-Fit Clips
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing underground landscape boxes have varying sizes and cover diameters due to different manufacturers, leading to inventory challenges and difficulties in finding replacement covers when original manufacturers are out of business or when covers are lost or vandalized.
Innovation Solution
A universal cover with a circular plate and three angled clips, designed to securely fit variously sized openings by bending and snapping into place, ensuring compatibility with multiple landscape box styles without requiring additional parts or inventory.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a universal cover design is implemented to fit multiple box sizes, then adaptability is improved, but device complexity increases due to the need for adjustable or interchangeable components
Solution Approach 1:
The cover is designed with a single standardized diameter that can be used across multiple box sizes within a class. The cover incorporates an insertion device with leaves that can be bent to fit varying circumferences, allowing one cover design to serve multiple box variations without requiring multiple cover sizes.
Solution Approach 2:
The cover includes flexible leaves that can be bent during installation to accommodate different box circumferences. These leaves transition from a flexible state during installation to a rigid state when secured, allowing the cover to adapt dynamically to various box sizes while maintaining structural integrity when installed.
2Adaptability or versatility
If an insertion device with bent leaves is used to attach the cover, then adaptability to different box sizes is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates due to difficulty in bending and depressing all leaves simultaneously
Solution Approach 1:
The attachment mechanism is divided into multiple independent leaves that can be manipulated separately. Each leaf can be bent and inserted independently into the box wall, allowing the installer to work with one leaf at a time rather than attempting to manipulate all leaves simultaneously, significantly easing the installation process.
Solution Approach 2:
The leaves are pre-formed with a bent configuration that facilitates insertion. The bending action is performed during manufacturing or pre-preparation, so that during installation, the leaves are already in the correct configuration for insertion, eliminating the need to bend them all simultaneously during the installation process.
3Reliability
If multiple serrations are provided on clips for secure attachment, then reliability is improved, but ease of operation worsens due to difficulty in removing the cover
Solution Approach 1:
The serrations are provided only on specific portions of the clips rather than along the entire length. The serrated portion is extracted and isolated to the insertion end of the clip, allowing secure attachment when inserted while leaving the remainder of the clip smooth for easy gripping and removal, thus resolving the contradiction between secure attachment and ease of removal.
Data Source
AI summary
A plate having an upper surface and a lower surface, a center point, and an outer perimeter. It further includes a plurality of clips for temporarily securing the plate in an opening in a landscape box. Each of the plurality of clips comprises a limb, extending vertically downward, the limb having the form of a rectangular plate and being upper bound by an upper edge and lower bound by a lower edge, wherein the upper edge is attached to the lower surface of the plate. The limb further includes a foot extending horizontally sideways from the lower edge.