Locker Door with Light-Transmitting Panel for Status Indication
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing locker and cabinet systems with limited access, such as post office boxes, face challenges in ensuring secure and easy use while providing clear information about locker status and accessibility, often requiring complex constructions and additional power sources for lighting elements.
Innovation Solution
A door design for lockers or cabinets with integrated light beam transmitting surfaces and lighting elements, allowing visual indication of locker status and position, which are powered by the control module without needing separate batteries, using a simple construction that facilitates manufacturing and maintenance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If lighting elements are installed in lockers to indicate status and position, then visibility and information provision are improved, but device complexity and power requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the lighting element with the door structure itself, integrating the light source into the door panel rather than using separate lighting components. This merging reduces device complexity while maintaining the information provision function, as the door serves dual purposes: structural closure and light emission for status indication.
Solution Approach 2:
The door is designed to serve multiple functions: it acts as both the closure element and the lighting element. The door panel incorporates light-transmitting properties, allowing it to function as both a structural component and an information display medium, thereby reducing overall system complexity while providing necessary visual cues about locker status.
2Reliability
If separate battery power sources are used for lighting elements, then lighting reliability is improved, but device complexity and maintenance requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the power supply for the lighting element with the existing control module that already powers the lock mechanism. By drawing power from the same source that operates the locking system, the design eliminates separate battery requirements, reducing device complexity and maintenance needs while ensuring reliable operation through the established power infrastructure.
3Loss of information
If complex constructions are used to provide lighting and information display, then information visibility is improved, but manufacturing and assembly difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent integrates the light-transmitting function directly into the door panel construction, using materials or structures that inherently allow light passage. This approach eliminates the need for separate lighting housings, lenses, or complex optical assemblies, thereby simplifying manufacturing and assembly processes while effectively conveying status information through the door itself.
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
Ensures safe and easy use of lockers by providing clear visual cues about locker status and position, simplifies construction, reduces maintenance complexity, and eliminates the need for battery power for lighting elements.
Implementation Method 1
A door design for lockers or cabinets with integrated light beam transmitting surfaces and lighting elements, allowing visual indication of locker status and position
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2~3
Figure 4
AI summary
The subject of the invention is a door for lockers or cabinets with limited access and the unit of lockers or cabinets with limited access, intended in particular for storing parcels. The door (1) includes structural parts, including a front panel (3) and side walls (4); wherein at least the side walls (4) have holes (6) for articulated connection of the door (1) with the body (7) of the locker. The essence consists in that a selected structural part of the door has at least a light beam transmitting surface fragment (5). The unit of lockers (2) with limited access, in particular the post boxes unit, comprises a body (7) with lockers (8) having an assigned lighting element (10). Each locker has walls, including a rear wall, and an articulated door (1) with a catch (11) cooperating with a lock (9) embedded in the body (7) of the locker unit (2). The essence consists in that the lighting element (10) assigned to each locker is embedded in at least one wall of the body (7) of the locker unit, to which the door (1) is adjacent, and the door (1) has at least a light beam transmitting surface fragment (5) matched to the position of the lighting element (10).