Nautical Instrument Sliding Mounting System
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing nautical instruments face challenges with tool-dependent mounting, aesthetic issues, moisture trapping, damage to ship surfaces, incompatibility with various instruments, exposure to damage, tarnishing, and loss of watertightness, necessitating a solution for easy, secure, and watertight mounting without visible fasteners.
Innovation Solution
A nautical instrument design featuring a sliding and snap-fit mounting system with angled channels and protrusions, zirconium-plated brass construction for tarnish resistance, and a ventilation space to prevent moisture buildup, allowing for tool-free mounting and secure, watertight engagement to a ship's surface.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If screws or bolts are used to mount the nautical instrument, then the instrument can be securely fixed to the ship surface, but the mounting requires tool usage and visible fasteners degrade aesthetic appearance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces traditional screw/bolt mechanical fastening systems with a snap-fit mounting mechanism. The instrument housing includes engagement protrusions that mate with corresponding recesses in the mounting surface, allowing tool-free attachment while maintaining secure fixation. This substitution eliminates the need for tools and hidden fasteners, resolving the contradiction between mounting security and ease of operation.
2Device complexity
If the rear surface of the instrument housing is pressed directly against the ship surface, then mounting is simplified, but moisture and contaminants become trapped between the housing and surface
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the mounting interface by introducing a mounting plate as a separate component between the instrument housing and the ship surface. This mounting plate includes a recessed area that creates a ventilation space, allowing moisture and contaminants to escape rather than become trapped. The segmentation resolves the contradiction by maintaining a simple overall mounting structure while eliminating the harmful moisture trapping effect.
3Strength
If a bulky box-like casing is used for mounting, then the instrument can be securely attached, but valuable ship cabin space is occupied
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the mounting function from a bulky box-like casing and integrates it directly into the instrument housing itself. The housing includes integrated engagement protrusions and a mounting plate with recesses, eliminating the need for a separate mounting box. This extraction maintains secure attachment while dramatically reducing the volume occupied in the ship cabin, resolving the contradiction between mounting security and space efficiency.
4Shape
If brass instruments are used, then aesthetic appeal is achieved, but the brass tarnishes easily reducing appearance quality
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs composite material construction for the instrument housing, combining brass components with tarnish-resistant materials such as stainless steel or coated surfaces. This composite approach allows the instrument to maintain the aesthetic appeal of brass while gaining the tarnish resistance of more durable materials, resolving the contradiction between appearance quality and reliability.
5Ease of operation
If the instrument is mounted on an external lift bracket, then removal is easier, but the instrument is exposed to damage from outside sources
Solution Approach 1:
The patent nests the mounting mechanism within the instrument housing itself rather than using an external lift bracket. The engagement protrusions and recesses are integrated into the housing structure, allowing easy removal while protecting the instrument by keeping it flush-mounted and enclosed within the housing, thus resolving the contradiction between removal ease and protection from external damage.
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
Enables easy and secure repetitive mounting and dismounting without damaging the ship's surface, maintains watertightness, and prevents tarnishing, while ensuring the instrument's aesthetic appeal and functional accuracy.
Implementation Method 1
zirconium-plated brass construction for tarnish resistance
Data Source
AI summary
A nautical instrument that can be repetitively mounted to and removed from a surface within a ship without the use of tools or other instruments. The nautical instrument incorporates a mounting system that achieves slidable locking engagement of the nautical instrument to a bulkhead plate that is permanently secured to the surface of the ship. In one embodiment, the invention is a nautical instrument comprising a housing having a bracket assembly comprising a downwardly extending overhang section that forms first and second channels between the overhang section and a rear surface of the back plate, the channels opposing one another in an angled orientation; and a mounting plate assembly connected to a front surface of a bulkhead plate, the mounting plate assembly having first and second angled edges adapted to be slidably inserted into the first and second channels of the bracket assembly.