Horizontal Lifeline Shuttle Geometry for Secure Cable Travel
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing horizontal lifeline shuttles face challenges in user comfort, cost, and production variability, which affect their ability to provide a secure and smooth connection between workers and anchored cables while allowing for movement.
Innovation Solution
A horizontal lifeline shuttle apparatus with a fixed jaw and moveable jaw, featuring a cable channel and moveable pin grooves with S-shaped profiles, allowing for rotational movement and locking mechanisms that mitigate production variability and eliminate the need for external locking hardware, thereby enhancing user comfort and reducing costs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional horizontal lifeline shuttles use external locking hardware and bulky mechanisms, then they provide secure connection, but they increase device complexity, cost, and user discomfort
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the locking function into the cable channel geometry itself. The cable channel is designed with specific angular surfaces that automatically lock the shuttle when the cable is inserted, eliminating the need for separate locking hardware. This integration of locking functionality into the existing cable channel structure reduces device complexity while maintaining secure connection reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The shuttle apparatus is designed to lock automatically through the interaction between the cable and the cable channel geometry. When the cable is inserted into the cable channel, the angular surfaces naturally guide and secure the shuttle in place without requiring external locking mechanisms or additional user actions. The system serves its own locking function through its geometric design.
2Reliability
If traditional shuttles use multiple components and external locking hardware, then they provide secure connection, but they increase manufacturing costs and production variability
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple functions into fewer components. The cable channel serves both as the guiding structure and the locking mechanism through its angular surfaces. This reduction in component count simplifies manufacturing processes, reduces assembly steps, and minimizes production variability while maintaining connection security.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses geometric parameters (angular surfaces, cable channel dimensions) to achieve locking functionality instead of mechanical components. By optimizing these geometric parameters during manufacturing, the design achieves secure connection with simpler, more consistent production processes and lower costs.
3Ease of operation
If traditional shuttles allow movement along the cable, then they provide worker mobility, but they risk detachment during movement
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a dynamic locking system where the cable channel's angular surfaces automatically adjust to maintain secure engagement during movement. The geometry allows the shuttle to move along the cable while the angular surfaces continuously provide locking action, adapting to the movement dynamics without requiring separate locking mechanisms.
4Reliability
If traditional shuttles use bulky locking mechanisms, then they provide secure connection, but they reduce user comfort and ease of movement
Solution Approach 1:
The patent integrates the locking function into the compact cable channel structure, eliminating bulky external locking hardware. This integration maintains secure connection while significantly reducing the overall size and bulk of the shuttle apparatus, thereby improving user comfort and ease of movement along the cable.
Data Source
Figure 1
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Figure 3A~3B
AI summary
A horizontal lifeline shuttle apparatus is provided. The horizontal lifeline shuttle apparatus includes an attachment portion, a body portion, and a cable channel. The body portion is configured to at least partially surround a portion of a cable so as to retain the portion of the cable within a cable channel The attachment portion is configured to move relative to the body portion based at least in part on the motion of the moveable pin fixedly secured thereto. At least a portion of the moveable pin is disposed within each of a plurality of moveable pin guide grooves positioned within the body portion such that a range of motion of the moveable pin is defined at least in part by the plurality of moveable pin grooves. At least one of the plurality of moveable pin grooves comprises a vertical portion.