Pivotable Lateral Protection Device for Heavy Vehicles
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing lateral protection devices for heavy road vehicles are cumbersome to access the space underneath, limiting practicality and preventing full utilization of the space due to their design, which often requires lifting heavy assemblies or has access doors that interfere with the space and are prone to accidental opening.
Innovation Solution
A lateral protection device with pivotable support legs and a wall element that rotates around a connection base, allowing easy access without lifting the assembly, combined with a rigid connection element for enhanced structural integrity and sealing capabilities.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If overturnable support legs with manual locking pins are used, then the bulkhead can be moved between lowered and raised positions, but the assembly is heavy and cumbersome to handle when lifting is required
Solution Approach 1:
The bulkhead is divided into multiple panels that can be independently manipulated. Instead of lifting the entire bulkhead assembly, operators can access and manipulate individual panels, significantly reducing the effective weight that must be handled at any one time while maintaining full accessibility to the space underneath.
Solution Approach 2:
The support legs incorporate overturnable mechanisms with locking pins that enable dynamic reconfiguration. The bulkhead can be easily tilted forward to a horizontal position for access, then locked in place, eliminating the need to lift heavy assemblies while providing full accessibility when needed.
2Ease of operation
If access doors are made on the bulkhead surface, then containment spaces can be accessed, but the doors have smaller dimensions than the bulkhead, limiting the dimensions of containment spaces
Solution Approach 1:
The bulkhead panels are made overturnable and can be tilted forward to a horizontal position, creating a large opening that matches the full dimensions of the bulkhead. This dynamic configuration allows access to containment spaces with maximum possible dimensions, eliminating the limitation of fixed small access doors.
3Reliability
If doors are hinged along their side facing the ground to open downwards, then access is prevented by the door itself, but the configuration is subject to accidental opening and cannot protect from water entrance
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of hinging doors to open downward along the ground side, the bulkhead panels are hinged to overturn forward horizontally. This inverted configuration allows the panels to be secured in the open position and eliminates the vulnerability to water entrance and accidental opening associated with downward-hinged doors.
4Reliability
If fixed support legs with hinged doors are used, then sealing closure can be achieved, but the doors are independently connected to the platform, making sealing difficult without extremely high mounting accuracy
Solution Approach 1:
The bulkhead panels are integrated with the support legs through overturnable connections, merging the functions of structural support and access closure. This integration ensures that the panels and support legs move together as a unified assembly, maintaining precise relative positioning and enabling effective sealing without requiring extremely high independent mounting accuracy for separate components.
Data Source
Figure 1~3
Figure 4~5
Figure 6~7
AI summary
The present invention relates to a lateral protection device (10) for heavy road vehicles comprising a plurality of support legs (12) comprising at least two support legs (12) each comprising a connection base (12a) configured to be rigidly fixed to a platform (20) or to a chassis (32) of a heavy road vehicle (30) according to a fixed reciprocal arrangement, parallel and spaced along a development axis (A) and an upright (12b) connected to the connection base (12a) at one of its ends, the uprights (12b) of the plurality of the support legs (12) being substantially linear, so that the set of uprights (12b) of the plurality of support legs (12) defines a plane of the uprights (12b) of the support legs (12), and at least one wall element (11) extending elongated along the development axis (A) and bound to at least two first support legs (12) of the plurality of support legs (12), and characterized in that the wall element (11) is constrained to the uprights (12b) of the at least two first support legs (12) at its own side facing the connection bases (12a) of the support legs (12) so as to pivot around a rotation axis (B), parallel to the development axis (A), between a closed operating position in which the wall element (11) is arranged substantially parallel to the plane of the uprights (12b) of the support legs (12) and at least an operating opening position in which the wall element (11) is tilted with respect to the plane of the uprights (12b) of the support legs (12).