Outdoor Charging Contact Base With Insulating Turrets Against Electrolysis
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing recharging systems for mobile devices face issues with electrolysis events due to exposure to humid or saline atmospheres, leading to potential degradation and safety hazards when electric potential differences are applied between contacts.
Innovation Solution
A base design with electrically conductive contacts on insulating turrets creates air gaps for insulation, draining fluids and preventing direct contact, ensuring efficient energy transfer even in adverse weather conditions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If contacts are arranged on a plane surface for recharging, then the structure is simple and operation is easy, but electrolysis occurs in humid or saline environments causing safety hazards and material degradation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent elevates contacts from a 2D plane surface to a 3D vertical arrangement on insulating supports, creating air gaps that prevent fluid pathways while maintaining electrical functionality. This dimensional change eliminates electrolysis by breaking the continuous liquid path between contacts with different polarities.
Solution Approach 2:
Insulating supports act as intermediary elements between the plane surface and the contacts. These supports physically separate contacts with different polarities, preventing direct fluid contact between them while allowing electrical energy transfer to occur through the mobile device contacts that bridge the gap.
2Adaptability or versatility
If moving mechanisms are used to achieve contact, then adaptability to different environments is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses the mobile device itself to achieve contact alignment. The mobile device's own geometry and positioning capabilities are leveraged to ensure proper contact alignment with the elevated contacts, eliminating the need for external moving mechanisms or complex positioning systems on the base.
Solution Approach 2:
The contact system is segmented into fixed elevated contacts on the base and corresponding contacts on the mobile device. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently - the base provides stable elevated contacts while the mobile device provides its own positioning and contact elements, reducing overall system complexity.
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
The solution enables reliable energy transfer in humid and saline environments without moving parts, reducing downtime and maintaining safety by preventing electrolysis, with scalable and adaptable designs.
Implementation Method 1
a base constituted of a tessellation of electrically conductive contacts positioned on top of electrically insulating supports
Implementation Method 2
fluids that are possibly present on the base are drained in the channels defined between the turrets
Data Source
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AI summary
A system for recharging an electric energy accumulator of an energy-absorber mobile device (900) provided with electrical contact poles (1001), the system comprising an energy-source base (100) constituted of electric contacts (201) mutually electrically insulated to define a contact plane (101) to which the electrical contact poles (1001) can be arranged in contact when the mobile device (900) is stationing on the base (100) so that the mobile device (900) absorbs energy from the base (100). The electric contacts (201) are arranged on top of turrets (203) made in electrically insulating materials. The electric contacts (201) and the turrets (203) are mutually separated through separation gaps (202) in air or in an atmosphere that is electrically non conductive or has a negligible electric conductivity.