Modular Indoor Crack Climbing Hold With Exchangable Body
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Solution Overview
Problem
Indoor climbing gyms struggle to simulate outdoor rock climbing features, particularly crack climbing environments, due to fixed and unchangeable crack features that cannot withstand significant tension and impact forces, limiting their use for traditional climbing techniques and gear placements.
Innovation Solution
The Indoor-Traditional Crack Climbing Hold (I-TCCH) provides a modular, flexible solution by using a housing with a cavity and a shape-conforming body that can be attached to a climbing wall, allowing for creation of various crack features, including continuous and angled trajectories, and can house sensors for competition purposes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If fixed crack features are built into climbing wall structures, then crack climbing simulation is achieved, but the features cannot withstand substantial tensioning and impact forces and cannot be used for traditional gear placements
Solution Approach 1:
The climbing hold is divided into a housing structure and a separate form-conforming body that can be inserted into the housing. This segmentation allows the form-conforming body to provide various crack features while the housing provides structural strength, enabling both traditional gear placements and multiple climbing techniques.
Solution Approach 2:
The housing is designed with multiple attachment points and a robust structure that can support various climbing techniques including traditional climbing, sport climbing, and bouldering. The form-conforming body can be exchanged to create different crack features, making the single hold versatile for multiple climbing disciplines.
2Stability of the object's composition
If permanent crack features are used, then structural stability is maintained, but the features become less useful to training climbers and inaccessible to beginner climbers
Solution Approach 1:
The form-conforming body can be exchanged or adjusted within the housing to change crack features dynamically. This allows the climbing wall to adapt to different skill levels and training needs while maintaining structural stability through the permanent housing structure.
Solution Approach 2:
By changing the form-conforming body inserted into the housing, different crack parameters such as width, depth, angle, and trajectory can be modified. This enables the creation of appropriate crack features for beginners, intermediate, and advanced climbers without compromising the structural integrity of the housing.
3Ease of operation
If fixed wood structures are built to simulate crack features, then crack climbing is enabled, but the structures cannot be loaded with more than human body weight
Solution Approach 1:
The housing is constructed from high-strength materials capable of withstanding substantial tensioning and impact forces, while the form-conforming body provides the wood-like crack features. This composite approach combines the strength of engineered materials with the aesthetic and functional properties of natural wood crack features.
Data Source
AI summary
Crack climbing is being sought out by more indoor climbers, however the issue that has arisen is that indoor features are fixed; cannot be removed or changed, thus climbing the feature indoors quickly loses its value as a method of getting stronger, or improving one's ability to adapt to outdoor environments. Currently if one wishes to practice or train for Crack climbing, they take to easy natural rock routes outdoors or build training boards out of wood to simulate common hand placements under the duress of a climb. Provided herein is an indoor-traditional crack climbing hold (I-TCCH) simulating a variety of Crack climbing situations and providing a “Settable” gym “Crack” to the simulated outdoor environment crack and the opportunity for climbers who wish to learn how to climb crack to have a safe way to learn about making correct hand placement, while conditioning themselves to natural rock surfaces.