Parquet Deformable Connection Element for Reversible Disassembly
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing parquet assembly methods are inconvenient for disassembly, often requiring irreversible damage to strips, leading to increased maintenance and replacement costs due to the irreversible nature of strip separation.
Innovation Solution
A parquet system with deformable connection elements that can switch between a non-deformed and deformed configuration, allowing for reversible disassembly using a disassembly tool that either elastically deforms or breaks the connection element, enabling the removal of strips without damaging them, and a kit that includes a tool for facilitating this process.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If conventional male/female shape coupling is used to join parquet strips, then assembly is fast and practical, but disassembly requires irreversible damage to the strips
Solution Approach 1:
The connection system is segmented into three distinct components: a male connection element with protrusion, a female connection element with recess, and an intermediate connection element. This segmentation allows the intermediate element to be selectively deformed or removed for disassembly while leaving the main parquet strips intact, resolving the contradiction between fast assembly and easy disassembly.
Solution Approach 2:
The intermediate connection element acts as a mediator between the male and female connection elements. It can be deformed using a disassembly tool to release the interlocking connection, enabling strip removal without damaging the strips themselves. This intermediary component facilitates reversible disassembly while maintaining strong initial bonding.
2Ease of operation
If strips are irreversibly damaged for disassembly, then strips can be removed from the laying plane, but maintenance and replacement costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The disassembly function is extracted from the parquet strips themselves and transferred to the intermediate connection element. By targeting only the intermediate element for deformation or removal, the main strips remain undamaged and can be reused, eliminating the loss of substance while maintaining ease of operation for strip removal.
Solution Approach 2:
The intermediate connection element is designed to be discarded or replaced, while the valuable parquet strips are recovered intact. This selective discarding approach allows maintenance operations to proceed without permanent loss of the main structural components, reducing long-term replacement costs.
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 the disassembly of parquet strips without damaging them, simplifying the process and reducing maintenance costs by allowing for the reuse of elastically deformable connection elements and the easy replacement of plastically deformable ones.
Implementation Method 1
a connection element (36) deformable from a non-deformed configuration, in which it is housed at least partially continuously in the seats (28) of said first strip (8) and second strip (12}, to a deformed configuration
Implementation Method 2
The deformable connection element may be plastically deformable so as to be housed inside a single seat (28) of one of said adjacent strips (8, 12)
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3~4
Figure 5
AI summary
A parquet (4) comprising at least one first strip (8) and one second strip (12), each having a body (16) extending along a prevailing longitudinal direction (L-L) and identifying a pair of bases (20) for the laying thereof, wherein said body (16) is provided, at at least one lateral edge (24), with a seat or perimeter recess (28), recessed with respect to said lateral edge (24), the lateral edges (24) of the adjacent strips (8,12) identifying a joint (32), at least one connection element (36) housed in the seats (28) of said first and second adjacent strips (8,12). The connection element (36) is deformable from a non-deformed or rest configuration, in which it is housed at least partially continuously in the seats (28) of said first and second strips (8,12) so as to create an undercut to a relative vertical movement between said strips (8,12), along a vertical direction (Z-Z) perpendicular to the prevailing longitudinal direction (L-L) and to said bases (20), to a deformed configuration in which the connection element (36) is housed in only one of said seats (28) or has a discontinuity or separation (40) at said joint (32) so as to allow the separation of said strips (8,12) in the vertical direction (Z-Z).