Lightning Protection Mount With Self-Registering Adhesive Anchor
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional lightning protection systems for buildings face challenges such as lengthy installation times, labor-intensive processes, misalignment issues, and the need for multiple components, particularly when dealing with complex architectural features and materials like polymeric or metallic sheets, which require invasive methods that compromise weather protection layers.
Innovation Solution
A universal mounting system for lightning arrester points that uses a base plate with a lip to securely anchor cables and points, allowing for rapid placement and precise registration without penetrating weather protection layers, utilizing adhesives that cure over time to provide mechanical stability and support, and featuring a stud and nut system for securing brackets and cables.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If conventional adhesives or glues are used to mount hardware, then bonding strength is achieved, but installation time is excessive due to curing requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The mounting system is divided into separate functional components: a base plate for structural support, a lip for mechanical registration and support, and adhesive for bonding. This segmentation allows the mechanical support functions to be immediate while the adhesive cures, eliminating the need to wait for adhesive strength during positioning.
Solution Approach 2:
The lip is pre-formed as an integral part of the base plate, providing immediate mechanical registration and support capabilities before the adhesive fully cures. This preliminary mechanical support structure eliminates the waiting period required for adhesive strength development.
2Strength
If mounting hardware is adhered to vertical surfaces, then secure attachment is achieved, but alignment precision deteriorates due to difficulty in maintaining orientation
Solution Approach 1:
The lip acts as a self-aligning feature that automatically registers the base plate against the horizontal surface and vertical edge, providing self-squaring capability. The installer simply places the component, and the lip's geometry ensures proper alignment without requiring additional tools or techniques.
3Strength
If invasive mounting methods are used on weather protection layers, then mechanical anchoring is achieved, but weather protection integrity is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The mounting system extracts the anchoring function from the weather protection layer itself, using the base plate and lip to provide mechanical support without penetrating the protective membrane. The adhesive bonds the base plate to the surface without compromising the weather barrier.
4Adaptability or versatility
If multiple components are used for mounting, then functional requirements are met, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The base plate and lip are merged into a single integral component, combining the bonding surface, structural support, and alignment functions into one piece. This eliminates the need for separate mounting brackets, alignment tools, and support structures that would otherwise be required.
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 system reduces installation time and labor, ensures precise alignment and orientation, and provides a robust, non-invasive solution that maintains the integrity of weather protection layers while supporting the weight and tension of cables and points, enhancing the aesthetic and functional reliability of lightning protection.
Implementation Method 1
an adhesive, needing time for curing, drying, or otherwise setting (increasing in adhesion, strength, mechanical stability, or any combination thereof)
Data Source
AI summary
An anchor for components of a lightning protection system may rely on a bonding agent, such as an adhesive, needing time for curing, drying, or otherwise setting (increasing in adhesion, strength, mechanical stability, or any combination thereof) by remaining in place while setting. The anchor may be suspended by a lip extending horizontally past an edge (plane of intersection of two planar surfaces) where a base plate is adhered to a vertical surface and the lip rests, registers in translation, and squares in rotation against a horizontal surface sharing an edge or fold (corner, bend) with the vertical surface. Once set sufficiently, the adhesive supports loads in shear (along plane of adhesion) and tension (perpendicular to plane of adhesion) imposed by brackets holding a cable, point, or both at each base plate.