Non-Releasable Plumbing Fitting With Flex Tabs and Spacer Members
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing plumbing fittings often require complex assemblies with many moving parts, making them susceptible to tampering, damage, or theft, as they often incorporate releasable mechanisms that can be compromised.
Innovation Solution
A plumbing fitting design featuring a cap and body with engagement projections and receivers, along with radially inwardly extending spacer members, which provide a substantially non-releasable coupling, inhibiting longitudinal translation and axial rotation, thus enhancing security and simplicity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If releasable mechanisms are incorporated into plumbing fittings to allow disconnection, then ease of operation is improved, but device complexity increases and reliability decreases due to susceptibility to tampering and damage
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the releasable mechanism entirely from the plumbing fitting, extracting the disconnection capability from the system. The cap is designed to be permanently secured to the body through interference fit and geometric constraints, eliminating any possibility of tampering or accidental disconnection while maintaining structural integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
The fitting is divided into distinct components (cap, body, engagement projections, receivers) that are assembled in a specific sequence. The segmentation allows for easy assembly during installation while ensuring that once assembled, the components form a tamper-proof unified structure that cannot be disassembled without specialized tools.
2Adaptability or versatility
If releasable mechanisms are incorporated into plumbing fittings, then adaptability is improved, but device complexity increases due to many moving parts
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the releasable mechanism from the design, resulting in a permanently secured fitting with no moving parts. The cap and body are designed with geometric features that provide automatic alignment and secure engagement, eliminating the need for complex locking or releasing mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The engagement projections and receivers are integrated directly into the cap and body structures, merging the connection function into the basic geometry of the components rather than adding separate moving parts. This integration achieves secure attachment with minimal complexity.
3Ease of manufacture
If spacer members are designed to displace radially outwardly during assembly, then ease of manufacture is improved through simplified assembly, but device complexity increases due to flexible tab structures
Solution Approach 1:
The tabs are designed with flexible properties that allow them to dynamically change shape during assembly. The tabs can flex outwardly to accommodate the spacer members during insertion, then return to their original position to provide secure engagement. This dynamic behavior simplifies the assembly process while maintaining structural integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
The physical state of the tabs changes during assembly - transitioning from a relaxed state to a flexed state when accommodating the spacer members, then returning to the relaxed state for final engagement. This parameter change (flexibility) allows for simplified assembly without requiring complex adjustment mechanisms.
Data Source
AI summary
A plumbing fitting (100) has a cap (1) and a body (3). The body has a fitting end (5). Engagement projections (7, 9) extend radially outwardly from an outer circumferential surface of the fitting end (5). The cap has a first tab (13) and a second tab (15) with free ends. The tabs (13, 15) have receivers (23, 25) to receive the engagement projections (7, 9). The tabs permit flexure of each tab relative to the other. Each tab has a radially inwardly extending spacer member (27, 28, 29, 30) at the free end of the tab. As the fitting end is received by the cap, the free end of each tab is displaced radially outwardly to space apart an inner circumferential surface of the tabs from the outer circumferential surface of the fitting end, thereby providing clearance for receipt of the engagement projections (7, 9) by the receivers (23, 25).