Modular Tower Structure for Flexible Self-Service Checkout Layouts
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing self-service checkout station systems lack modular flexibility, making it impossible to achieve desired structures and applications due to insufficient mounting positions, limiting their adaptability and functionality.
Innovation Solution
A modular tower structure comprising a foot plate, cabinet, top module, and supplementary modules with adjustable mounting positions, allowing for customizable configurations of electronic equipment and shelves, enabling the creation of self-service checkout stations, stock control modules, and info stands with minimal floor space usage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If existing self-service checkout station systems are used, then they provide basic functionality, but they lack modular flexibility and cannot be built with various modules to achieve desired structures and applications
Solution Approach 1:
The system is divided into separate modular components including a tower module with cabinet and foot plate, a top module with housing and mounting plate, and various supplementary modules such as packaging shelves and blind plates. Each module can be independently manufactured and then assembled together using standardized mounting positions, enabling flexible configuration while maintaining manufacturing simplicity
Solution Approach 2:
The mounting positions are designed with universal attachment hole patterns that can accommodate different types of modules and electronic equipment. The cabinet includes mounting positions on side plates and top plate, while the top module has mounting positions on its housing and mounting plate, allowing the same mounting mechanism to support various configurations for different applications
2Area of stationary object
If the tower structure is made free-standing with cabinet secured to foot plate and top plate secured to cabinet, then it requires minimum floor space and is movable, but it must ensure stability and proper support for electronic equipment
Solution Approach 1:
The cabinet is securely combined with the foot plate through mounting positions that fasten the cabinet to the foot plate base. The top plate is similarly combined with the cabinet structure, creating an integrated free-standing tower assembly. This merging of components ensures structural stability while maintaining a compact footprint that minimizes floor space requirements
3Adaptability or versatility
If mounting positions are provided on side plates with attachment holes in rows and on top plate with central and corner attachment holes, then various supplementary modules and electronic equipment can be mounted at different heights and positions, but the cabinet design becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
Attachment holes are strategically placed at specific locations on the cabinet structure - in rows on the side plates and at central and corner positions on the top plate. This localized concentration of mounting features at critical structural points provides versatile mounting options while minimizing the overall complexity of the cabinet design and manufacturing process
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a system for the building of a free-standing tower structure (1) for the support of electronic equipment, comprising a tower module (2) and a top module (3) as well as a plurality of supplementary modules to be mounted on the tower module or the top module, said tower structure, in cooperation with selected electronic equipment, constituting a functional unit, such as a self-service checkout station, a storage control desk, an info stand or the like, characterized in that the tower module (2) comprises a foot plate (10) and a cabinet (11) secured to the foot plate, said cabinet being equipped with a mounting position (12) for the top module (3) and a mounting position (13, 14) for supplementary modules, and that the top module comprises a mounting plate (17) and a housing (18) coupled to the mounting plate, said housing being equipped with a mounting position (15) for supplementary modules and a mounting position (16) for electronic equipment, and that the supplementary modules comprise packaging shelves (4, 5) with and without a bag holder (66), a blind plate (6), a frame-shaped shelf (7) as well as arms (8, 9) for the support of electronic equipment. This provides a relatively inexpensive and flexible mechanical structure which requires a minimum of floor space, which makes it movable, and which allows layout, expansion and change, as needed, in a simple manner.