Lowerable Scaffold Guardrail Frame for Compact Safe Access
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing scaffolding systems face challenges in achieving a balance between compactness, robustness, and safety, particularly in transitioning from a lowered to a raised position, which puts stress on support structures like ladder uprights and complicates access to platforms.
Innovation Solution
A scaffolding system design that allows for a transition from a lowered to a raised position with reduced stress on support structures, featuring a guardrail that can be relatively rigid and straight in the raised position, with components like ladder sections that slide relative to each other and a folding base that maintains compactness, and includes a locking mechanism for stability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If the guardrail is installed by moving it upwards along the scaffolding, then the scaffolding can be compact in the lowered position, but the transition puts stress on the support structures like ladder uprights
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of moving the guardrail upwards along the scaffolding (conventional approach), the patent inverts the sequence by first extending the ladder sections to the desired height, then lowering the guardrail into place. This reversal eliminates the stress on support structures during installation while achieving compactness when lowered.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-extending the ladder sections to the required height before installing the guardrail. This preliminary configuration of the support structure allows the guardrail to be lowered into place without creating stress during the transition, resolving the contradiction between compactness and structural stress.
2Volume of moving object
If the guardrail frame is folded down against the ladder for compactness, then access to the platform becomes more difficult, but this makes the scaffolding safer by intuitively blocking ladder access
Solution Approach 1:
The patent converts the harmful effect of blocked access into a beneficial safety feature. When the guardrail frame is folded down against the ladder in the lowered position, it intuitively blocks access to the platform, preventing unauthorized or unsafe access. Users must raise the guardrail frame to access the ladder, making the safety mechanism obvious and effective.
3Productivity
If higher scaffolding heights are reached for a given footprint, then the system becomes more efficient, but the stress on ladder uprights increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the conventional installation sequence to achieve higher scaffolding heights without increased stress. By extending ladder sections to the desired height first, then lowering the guardrail into place, the system achieves high productivity and height efficiency while eliminating the stress that would occur during upward movement of heavy components.
Data Source
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AI summary
A scaffolding system (1) comprising a support for a platform assembly (30) and a guardrail assembly (20), comprising two ladder assemblies (10, 11) facing each other, and the guardrail assembly (20), said assembly comprising at least one guardrail upright (270, 271, 272, 273) and at least one rod-type element (272, 273) rigidly attached to a corresponding guardrail upright (270, 271), and forming with said guardrail upright a guardrail frame, in which the guardrail assembly moves from a lowered position to a raised position, and vice versa, by a rotation of the guardrail frame about an axis ((D1), (D2)) having a parallel both in a plane defined by said guardrail frame and in a plan defined by the entire plateau.