Movable-Shelf Closet Design for Access to Deep and High Storage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional closets are inefficient in providing easy access to stored goods due to their height and depth, with existing solutions like rotating shelves not effectively addressing the issue of reaching items at different heights and often reducing available storage space.
Innovation Solution
A closet design featuring support elements like drawers or shelves arranged in parallel rows with movement means that allow lateral and depth movement, utilizing a single empty space to facilitate access to all items regardless of height, optimizing storage space usage by allowing support elements to be moved to a comfortable position near an access opening.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If closets are made large to store many goods, then storage capacity is improved, but access to goods becomes difficult due to height and depth
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the dynamics principle by making the shelves movable rather than fixed. Each shelf can be independently moved along the vertical axis to any height position, allowing goods to be accessed at convenient heights regardless of the closet's overall size. This resolves the contradiction by enabling dynamic reconfiguration of storage positions while maintaining large storage capacity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces vertical movement capability to shelves, adding a degree of freedom in the vertical dimension. This allows goods stored at the back of deep closets to be moved forward and accessed, and items at inconvenient heights to be repositioned to accessible levels, thereby solving the access problem while preserving large storage volume.
2Quantity of substance
If goods are arranged in depth to maximize storage, then storage density is improved, but access to rear goods becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The movable shelf mechanism allows shelves containing rear goods to be pulled forward to the front of the closet for access, then returned to their storage positions. This dynamic movement capability enables easy access to goods that would otherwise be trapped at the back, while maintaining high storage density through compact arrangement.
3Ease of operation
If rotating shelves are used to access rear goods, then access to depth is improved, but storage space is reduced due to circular shape requirement
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of using fixed circular rotating shelves, the patent employs linearly movable shelves that can slide in and out along the depth axis. This linear movement mechanism achieves the same access-to-depth functionality while allowing the closet to maintain a rectangular shape, thereby maximizing storage space utilization.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent inverts the conventional rotating shelf concept by using linear translation instead of rotational movement. This inversion allows the shelves to move along straight lines parallel to the closet walls, eliminating the need for circular paths and preserving the efficient rectangular storage volume.
4Ease of operation
If multiple empty spaces are created for drawer movement, then access convenience is improved, but storage space is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the movement functions of multiple shelves into a single continuous track system, allowing all shelves to move along the same vertical path. This eliminates the need for separate empty spaces for each drawer's movement, as shelves can pass through each other's original positions along the shared track, thereby preserving storage space while maintaining access convenience.
Data Source
Figure 1~3d
Figure 4~5
AI summary
A closet for household goods such as clothes, furnishings or food comprising: a plurality of support elements (2) for goods arranged in parallel orders (3); a container body (4) for said support elements (2) provided with access openings (5); moving means (8) of each support elements (2) to place it in correspondence with the access opening (5), in one first order (10) being present a number of support elements (2) lower than one from the maximum number of support elements (2) placeable in each order (3) so as to have an empty space (11) capable of receiving a support element (2) present in a contiguous order (3). The movement means comprise first movement group (15) of the support elements (2) along the direction (X) defined by the orders (3) and second movement groups (16) of the support elements (2) from one contiguous orders (3) to the first order (10) in the empty space (11), the first movement groups (15) and the second movement groups (16) acting at separate time instants.