Leg-plate joinery assembly
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing furniture joinery systems face challenges in providing structural integrity while allowing for easy transportation and storage, as they often require wide aprons for support, which reduces leg clearance, and permanent fixation is undesirable due to difficulties in mobility and maintenance.
Innovation Solution
A leg-plate joinery assembly featuring a metal plate with aligned apertures and bore holes, using mechanical fasteners and high-strength epoxy to secure the leg to the furniture surface, allowing for removable attachment and maintaining structural integrity over time.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If wide aprons are used to provide structural support to table legs, then structural strength is improved, but leg clearance space is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the structural support function from the apron and relocates it to the metal plate joinery assembly. The metal plate with multiple apertures and mechanical fasteners provides the necessary structural support without requiring wide aprons, thereby freeing up leg clearance space while maintaining structural integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
The metal plate acts as an intermediary element between the leg and the tabletop bottom surface. It provides structural support and stability without requiring direct wide apron connections, enabling both strong leg attachment and adequate leg clearance.
2Strength
If permanent fixation of furniture legs to the furniture body is used, then structural integrity is improved, but ease of transportation and storage is worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The joinery system is segmented into removable components: the metal plate can be detached from both the leg and the tabletop bottom surface. This segmentation allows the furniture to be disassembled for easy transportation and storage, while still providing strong structural integrity when assembled through the mechanical fastener and epoxy composition.
Solution Approach 2:
The connection system transitions from static permanent fixation to dynamic removable fixation. The mechanical fastener allows the metal plate to be securely attached during use and easily removed when transportation or storage is needed, providing adaptability between different operational states.
3Ease of manufacture
If mechanical fasteners alone are used to attach legs, then ease of assembly is improved, but reliability over time is worsened due to loosening
Solution Approach 1:
The invention merges two attachment mechanisms: mechanical fasteners for easy assembly and epoxy composition for long-term reliability. The mechanical fastener provides immediate structural support and easy assembly, while the epoxy composition fills gaps and prevents loosening over time, creating a hybrid system that combines the advantages of both methods.
Solution Approach 2:
The joinery system uses a composite approach combining mechanical (metal fastener) and chemical (epoxy resin) bonding methods. This composite attachment system leverages the immediate strength and reversibility of mechanical fastening with the permanent, gap-filling properties of epoxy to achieve both ease of assembly and long-term reliability.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution provides a secure, removable leg joint that maintains structural integrity and reduces the need for frequent tightening or adjustment, facilitating easy transportation and storage while ensuring lasting support.
Implementation Method 1
An epoxy composition is configured to be received in each of the one or more bore holes
Data Source
AI summary
A leg-plate joinery assembly includes a metal plate portion having a first set of one or more apertures and a second set of one or more apertures, a leg portion having one or more bore holes, wherein each bore hole includes a narrow portion and a wide portion, a first set of one or more mechanical fasteners configured to pass through corresponding apertures of the first set of one or more apertures such that each mechanical fastener is received in a corresponding, aligned one of the one or more bore holes, and a second set of one or more mechanical fasteners, wherein each mechanical fastener in the second set of one or more mechanical fasteners configured to pass through a corresponding aperture of the second set of one or more apertures. An epoxy composition is configured to be received in each of the one or more bore holes.