Lifting Hardware with Offset Support Frame to Reduce Collision Risk
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Lifting hardware for corner cabinets poses a risk of collisions when lowered, as the base fills the opening completely, potentially causing injuries upon reaching into it.
Innovation Solution
The support frame is offset from the opening's edges, with engagement structures allowing shear movement and tilting of the base, ensuring safe operation by preventing resistance and enabling easy lifting when encountering obstacles.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If the base fills the opening of the work surface completely, then the storage capacity is maximized, but the risk of contusions increases when reaching into the opening
Solution Approach 1:
The support frame is extracted from the opening edge and offset inward by a specific distance, creating a safety gap that removes the harmful contact point while preserving the base's storage function. The base continues to fill the opening completely for maximum storage, but the support frame is taken out from the dangerous position at the edge.
Solution Approach 2:
The engagement structures act as intermediary elements between the base and support frame, allowing controlled movement and tilting. These intermediaries enable the base to shear and tilt without resistance when encountering obstacles, converting potential harmful rigid contact into safe flexible interaction.
2Stability of the object's composition
If the base is rigidly fixed to the support frame, then the base remains stable during lowering, but the base cannot tilt or shear when encountering obstacles
Solution Approach 1:
The engagement structures are designed with dynamic characteristics, allowing the base to tilt and shear relative to the support frame within certain limits. The plug-in slots and webs provide guided movement that adapts to obstacles while maintaining overall stability during normal operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes its mechanical parameters dynamically: during normal lowering, the engagement structures maintain stable connection; when obstacles are encountered, the structures allow parameter changes through tilting and shearing movements, transforming the rigid-stable state into a flexible-adaptable state.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If the support frame is offset from the opening edges, then safety is improved by preventing direct contact, but the base may become misaligned in the opening
Solution Approach 1:
The engagement structures are pre-configured with specific geometries (plug-in slots and webs) that guide the base into correct alignment as it engages with the support frame. This preliminary structural arrangement ensures proper positioning before the lowering operation begins, compensating for the offset design.
Solution Approach 2:
The engagement structures utilize asymmetric geometries where the plug-in slots and webs are specifically shaped to provide both the safety offset and the alignment function. The asymmetric design allows the base to be held firmly in the horizontal direction while permitting controlled vertical and tilting movements.
Data Source
AI summary
Lifting hardware for a base which can be lowered into an opening of a work surface, includes a support frame which holds the base and is adjustable vertically relative to the work surface by a drive, the exterior periphery of the support frame is arranged at a distance from edges of the opening in the horizontal direction; the base rests loosely on the support frame in the vertical direction and is held thereon in a form-fitting manner in the horizontal direction by four engagement structures which form corners of a rectangle, each having a vertically oriented web on the support frame or base, and a complementary plug-in slot on the other and fixes the position of the support frame and base only in the horizontal direction normal to the web; and the plug-in slots are oriented at right angles to one another for each pair of mutually adjacent engagement structures.