Low-Profile Wheel Chock with Internal Webs
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current wheel chocks designed for 'low-drag' vehicles face challenges in installation and damage prevention due to restricted clearance between the vehicle's wheels and body, as well as dynamic movement during transport, which leads to potential damage to the vehicle's components.
Innovation Solution
A pair of low-profile, non-interchangeable wheel chocks with mirror-image bodies, each equipped with a ratchetable torque tube and a hookless harness, are designed to fit within the safe and deck zones, allowing for secure wheel restraint without damaging the vehicle's components, using a network of internal webs for strength and a hookless strap configuration to avoid contact with inner panels.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If the wheel chock body is made high to provide strength and stiffness, then the structural integrity is improved, but the clearance between the chock and the vehicle components is reduced, causing damage to wheel-well components
Solution Approach 1:
The chock body is divided into multiple sections with internal webs that provide structural strength while reducing the overall height. The segmentation allows the chock to maintain integrity without requiring a tall monolithic structure, thus preventing damage to wheel-well components.
Solution Approach 2:
The chock body uses a composite structure combining plastic material with integrated metal torque tube and internal web reinforcement. This composite approach provides the necessary strength and stiffness in a low-profile configuration, avoiding damage to vehicle components while maintaining structural integrity.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If the chock body is made low-profile to fit under low-drag vehicles, then the clearance for safe installation is improved, but the strength and stiffness of the chock body is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The low-profile chock body incorporates internal webs that segment the structure into load-bearing sections. This segmentation provides the necessary strength and stiffness despite the reduced overall height, allowing safe installation under low-drag vehicles without compromising structural integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
The chock uses a composite construction with plastic body material reinforced by integrated metal torque tube and internal web structures. This composite material approach enables the low-profile design to achieve adequate strength and stiffness for safe installation while maintaining the low clearance required for modern vehicles.
3Reliability
If a traditional harness with hooks is used to secure the wheel, then the wheel restraint function is achieved, but the inner panels of the wheel-well are damaged due to contact with the hooks
Solution Approach 1:
The harmful hooks are completely removed from the harness design. The hookless harness uses alternative securing mechanisms that do not involve hooks, thereby eliminating the source of damage to inner panels while maintaining the wheel restraint function through strap tensioning and friction-based securing.
4Ease of operation
If the torque tube is positioned above the chock-rail to allow tightening and loosening, then the harness operation is improved, but the elevational profile of the chock becomes too high for safe installation
Solution Approach 1:
The torque tube mechanism is repositioned from a vertical arrangement above the chock-rail to a horizontal or integrated arrangement within the low-profile chock body. This dimensional change allows the tightening and loosening function to be maintained while keeping the chock elevation within safe limits for installation under low-drag vehicles.
Data Source
AI summary
A wheel chock body for a wheel chock that has low elevational profile. The low profile of a wheel chock allows it to be positioned under a vehicle the rocker panel of which has its lower edge only 148 mm (5.82 inches) above the surface upon which the vehicle's tire rests, so that the installed chock height is reduced to 47.6 mm (1.87 inches) under the components of the vehicle's body.