Pivoting Earth Anchor with Stepped Guiding Plates
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Solution Overview
Problem
Cylindrical ground anchors face challenges with high driving resistance, tendency to wander during insertion, and reduced load-bearing capabilities compared to winged anchors, making them difficult to drive straight and lock properly, especially in resistant soils like clay or rock.
Innovation Solution
A cylindrical anchor design featuring a raised rib, flattened plate-like extensions with stepped leading edges, and guiding plates with serrated edges that are angled and chiseled, reducing driving force requirements and enhancing straight-line drivability by resisting rotation and providing improved load-bearing capabilities.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If winged anchors are used to increase load-bearing capability, then load resistance is improved, but driving force requirement and rotation difficulty are increased
Solution Approach 1:
The anchor body is segmented into a main cylindrical body and separate plate-like extensions with stepped leading edges. These extensions are positioned at angles to the main body, providing load-bearing surfaces without requiring large lateral wings. The segmentation allows the anchor to achieve adequate load resistance while minimizing the area that must be pushed through the ground during installation.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of using large lateral wings that extend horizontally, the invention uses plate-like extensions that project forward and are angled relative to the main body. This dimensional reconfiguration provides load-bearing surfaces in a different spatial arrangement, reducing the horizontal footprint and the driving force required while maintaining anchoring capability.
2Strength
If large lateral wings are added to increase contact area, then load resistance is improved, but driving force requirement and anchor deflection are increased
Solution Approach 1:
The anchor features localized plate-like extensions with stepped leading edges positioned at specific angles rather than large continuous lateral wings. This local quality approach provides load-bearing surfaces only where needed, minimizing the total area that must be pushed through the ground while maintaining adequate load resistance at critical contact points.
3Ease of operation
If cylindrical anchors are used to reduce driving force, then driving ease is improved, but load-bearing capability and straight-line drivability are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The anchor maintains a predominantly cylindrical symmetric body for ease of driving, but adds asymmetric plate-like extensions with stepped leading edges at specific angles. This asymmetric addition provides the necessary load-bearing surfaces and straight-line driving guidance without significantly increasing the driving force requirement, resolving the contradiction between cylindrical simplicity and load-bearing capability.
4Ease of operation
If stepped leading edges are added to reduce driving resistance, then driving ease is improved, but device complexity is increased
Solution Approach 1:
The stepped leading edges are merged with the plate-like extensions that also serve as load-bearing surfaces. This combining of functions means that the complexity of the stepped edges is justified by their dual role in reducing driving resistance and providing anchoring capability, rather than being separate features adding unnecessary 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 design minimizes driving resistance, improves straight-line driving tendencies, and enhances load-bearing capacity, allowing for easier and more precise installation of ground anchors without the need for excessive force, even in challenging soil conditions.
Implementation Method 1
the guiding plates having serrated or stepped leading edges... resisting rotation and providing improved load-bearing capabilities
Implementation Method 2
the trailing edge outturned lip will bite into the earth causing the anchor to rotate or pivot to a locked position
Data Source
AI summary
An earth anchor of the pivoting type having an essentially cylindrical body, a blind bore extending therein to from a trailing axial end of the cylindrical body and a leading edge projecting from a leading end of the body, the leading edge chisel shaped for ease of penetration into the ground, guiding surfaces extending substantially normal to the leading edge and forward of the main body portion, the guiding surfaces having a plurality of leading chisel edges stepped back from the leading edge and from one another as the guiding surface leading edges are spaced further away from a center of the leading edge, the guiding surfaces terminating in final leading edge spaced axially from the leading edge and laterally from each of the stepped leading edges and having at least a portion which extend radially beyond the main body, guide ridges extending from the final leading edges to the trailing axial end projecting radially from the body substantially no further than the maximum width of the guiding surface leading edges.