Motorized Swimming Pool Separator With Anti-Tipping Guides
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing swimming pools with movable partition walls require manual or cumbersome mechanical repositioning, pose safety risks due to tipping, and lack flexibility in lane adjustments, especially for large pools used in competitions.
Innovation Solution
Incorporation of independently movable inner walls within the pool, guided by a motor-driven system with pneumatic or electric drives, allowing precise adjustment and secure positioning without additional fixation, using rails, rollers, and protective profiles to prevent collisions and injuries.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If manual or external devices are used to reposition interior walls, then the pool can be divided into different sections, but the operation becomes laborious and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual mechanical repositioning with an automated drive mechanism. Motors are integrated into the interior walls, enabling them to move autonomously along guides without requiring manual pushing, pulling, or external pulling cords. This automation directly resolves the contradiction by maintaining pool division capability while eliminating laborious operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The interior walls are equipped with self-contained drive mechanisms that enable them to reposition themselves independently. The walls can move autonomously to desired positions without requiring external assistance or manual intervention, thus improving ease of operation while preserving the ability to divide the pool into different sections.
2Adaptability or versatility
If interior walls are made movable to adjust lane lengths, then pool flexibility increases, but the risk of wall tipping increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent incorporates guides into the pool structure before the interior walls are repositioned. These guides pre-establish the correct path and positioning for the walls, ensuring they remain stable and upright during movement and at all subsequent positions. This preliminary structural preparation prevents tipping while maintaining lane length adjustability.
Solution Approach 2:
The guides act as an intermediary between the movable interior walls and the pool structure. They provide continuous support and constraint to the walls during movement, preventing tipping while allowing the walls to change position for lane length adjustment. The guides mediate between the need for wall mobility and the need for wall stability.
3Reliability
If anchors are added to secure interior walls after repositioning, then wall stability improves, but the operation becomes more complex and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the anchor fixation system with a guide-based constraint system. Instead of requiring separate anchoring operations after wall repositioning, the guides continuously constrain and stabilize the walls throughout their entire range of motion. This substitution eliminates the need for additional fixation devices and operations, reducing complexity while maintaining stability.
Solution Approach 2:
The guides provide continuous support and stabilization to the interior walls throughout their entire movement range and at all positioned states. This continuous constraint eliminates the need for discrete anchoring operations at specific positions, simplifying the overall system while ensuring wall stability without additional fixation steps.
4Ease of operation
If pulling cords remain attached to interior walls for repositioning, then wall movement is enabled, but they are perceived as distractions in the pool volume
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the drive mechanism from external pulling cords and integrates it directly into the interior walls themselves. By eliminating the need for external cords and incorporating self-contained motors, the system removes the visual distraction while preserving the repositioning capability. The walls move autonomously without requiring visible external control elements.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enhances pool flexibility and safety by enabling easy, precise lane adjustments and reducing the risk of wall tipping, while eliminating the need for manual handling and electrical hazards.
Implementation Method 1
each of which is displaceable separately and/or independently of one another by a motor drive
Implementation Method 2
the inner walls are each mounted so as to be displaceable in a guide along the length of the swimming pool
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
AI summary
A swimming pool (1) with a swimming pool floor (2) and a surrounding outer wall (3) is proposed, which can be used even more flexibly and safely. For this purpose, a first (5) and a second inner wall (6) are provided within the inner volume (4), each extending from the swimming pool floor (2) to the pool edge and along part of the width (B) and the long side (L), wherein the inner walls (5, 6) are arranged so as to be displaceable independently of one another parallel to the long side (L), the width (b1, b2) of the inner walls (5, 6) together corresponds to the width (B) of the inner volume (4), and the inner walls (5, 6), when arranged in alignment in the same position along the long side (L), divide the swimming pool (1) over its entire width (B), wherein the inner walls (5, 6) are each mounted so as to be displaceable in a guide (7) along the long side (L) of the swimming pool (1) and are each displaceable independently of one another by a motor drive (8).