Modular Flexible Light Bar for Vehicle Surfaces
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicle-mounted warning and signal lights are often customized for specific vehicle configurations and locations, limiting their adaptability across different vehicle types and mounting surfaces.
Innovation Solution
Modular flexible light bars with interchangeable modules and flexible couplers that can be easily affixed to various vehicle surfaces, including windshields, dashboards, and rear decks, allowing for adaptable configurations and flexible mounting options across different vehicle classes and surfaces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If customized mounting components are used for specific vehicle configurations, then the mounting reliability for that specific configuration is improved, but the adaptability to different vehicle types and locations deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The mounting component is designed with a universal adaptation mechanism that can adjust to different vehicle configurations and locations. The component includes adjustable mounting brackets and flexible positioning features that allow the same component to be reliably installed on various vehicle types (police cars, fire trucks, ambulances) and different locations (windshields, dashboards, rear decks) without requiring custom-designed components for each application.
Solution Approach 2:
The mounting component incorporates dynamic adjustment capabilities, allowing it to adapt its configuration during installation and positioning. The component can be adjusted to accommodate different angles, positions, and mounting surface characteristics, providing both universality across vehicle types and reliability for each specific installation location.
2Strength
If fixed rigid light bar structures are used, then the structural strength is improved, but the ease of installation on different surfaces deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The light bar structure is divided into modular segments connected by flexible joints. This segmentation allows the light bar to maintain structural strength in each rigid segment while enabling flexible adaptation to different mounting surfaces through the articulated connections between segments. The modular design facilitates easier installation as sections can be independently positioned and adjusted.
Solution Approach 2:
The light bar incorporates flexible coupling elements and articulating joints that allow the rigid segments to bend and adapt to curved or irregular mounting surfaces. These flexible connections maintain structural integrity while enabling the light bar to conform to different surface geometries, including curved windshields and angled dashboards.
3Ease of manufacture
If standardized mounting components are used, then the ease of manufacture is improved, but the adaptability to different vehicle configurations deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The mounting component is pre-configured with adjustable features and multiple mounting options during manufacturing. This preliminary preparation includes pre-installed adjustment mechanisms, pre-positioned mounting points, and pre-configured flexible elements that enable the standardized component to adapt to different vehicle configurations without requiring complex customization or additional manufacturing steps for each application.
Data Source
AI summary
Light bars, and lighting systems and vehicles that include light bars. The light bars include a plurality of light emitting modules coupled together at flexible joints to allow a single light bar to be affixed to surfaces of varying curvatures, such as an interior window surface of a vehicle. The size of the light bar is easily customizable due to its modular nature. In some examples, a controller or other electronic element is adapted to detect a number and/or configuration of modules in a given light bar.