Movable Barrier Elements with Elastic Rope Support for Ice Rink Safety
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing barrier arrangements for sports fields and ice rinks are rigid, leading to a significant risk of injury when players collide with them, especially during high-impact events like ice hockey games.
Innovation Solution
The barrier elements are movably connected and supported by elastic ropes, allowing them to pivot and absorb impact energy, with adjustable tensioning devices and gas pressure springs to cushion impacts and prevent rigid contact.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If rigid barrier walls are used to delimit the sports field, then the structural strength and stability are improved, but the risk of injury to players colliding with the barrier increases
Solution Approach 1:
The barrier elements are designed to be movable rather than fixed, allowing them to pivot outward when impacted by players. This dynamic response converts the static rigid structure into a flexible system that absorbs impact energy through motion, significantly reducing injury risk while maintaining structural integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
The barrier system changes its physical parameters during impact - transitioning from a rigid vertical position to a pivoted outward position. The gas pressure springs adjust the barrier's resistance parameter, allowing it to yield under impact forces while maintaining structural strength, thereby resolving the contradiction between strength and injury risk.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If the barrier elements are made movable to reduce injury risk, then the safety for players is improved, but the structural stability and position holding capability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The gas pressure springs provide self-regulating force to the barrier elements, automatically pushing them back to the vertical position after impact without external intervention. This self-service mechanism maintains structural stability and position holding capability while allowing controlled movement for safety, resolving the contradiction between movability and stability.
Solution Approach 2:
The barrier elements undergo periodic motion - returning to vertical position after each impact through gas pressure spring action. This periodic restoration maintains structural stability over time while allowing temporary displacement for safety, converting a potentially unstable movable structure into a stable cyclic system.
3Loss of energy
If the barrier elements can pivot outward to absorb impact, then the impact energy absorption is improved, but the complexity of the barrier structure increases
Solution Approach 1:
The barrier is divided into multiple independent elements that can pivot individually rather than as a single rigid structure. This segmentation allows impact energy to be absorbed through distributed pivoting motion of multiple elements, reducing the complexity burden on any single component while maintaining effective energy absorption.
Solution Approach 2:
Gas pressure springs serve as intermediary elements between the barrier structure and the ground, providing the necessary force for pivoting without requiring complex mechanical linkages. This intermediary approach simplifies the overall structure by using a straightforward pneumatic mechanism to enable energy absorption through controlled movement.
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
This design significantly reduces the risk of injury by allowing the barrier elements to absorb and distribute impact forces, enabling them to return to their original position, thus providing effective cushioning and flexibility during collisions.
Implementation Method 1
The vertical edge beams are alternately curved concavely and convexly in the horizontal section, with adjacent frame bars engaging in one another in a form-fitting manner, so that the adjacent band elements can be twisted against one another, being braced with one another by the gas pressure springs.
Implementation Method 2
Due to the elasticity of the tensioned rope or ropes, the band elements immediately spring back into their original position. The force of the impact is thus elastically cushioned, so that the risk of injury for an affected person is significantly reduced.
Data Source
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AI summary
The barrier arrangement for demarcating a sports field, in particular an ice skating or ice hockey rink, or a playing field for ball games, with barrier elements that have a barrier wall on their inner side facing the sports or playing field, is characterized in that the barrier elements are movably connected to one another, that the barrier elements are loosely placed on the ground without being attached to the ground, that ropes with tensioning devices are stretched on the outside of the barrier elements at a distance from them, the ropes running in the longitudinal direction of the barrier elements and being held by supports attached to the ground, and that the barrier elements have rigid holders projecting from their rear with rope guide elements that are connected to the ropes, so that the barrier elements are elastically supported on the ropes.