Pocketed Spring Assembly Seams for Angled-Load Fabric Durability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Pocketed spring assemblies in bedding and seating products often experience fabric stress and damage due to angled loads, leading to wear and eventual breakage, as the springs tend to buckle and move outside their pockets.
Innovation Solution
A pocketed spring assembly design where the fabric is constructed with longitudinal and separating seams that allow springs to buckle without stressing the fabric, featuring V-shaped, Y-shaped, or U-shaped seams that enable central convolutions to move laterally within the pockets, allowing for improved flexibility and comfort.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If linear seams are used to separate adjacent pocketed springs, then the structure is simple and easy to manufacture, but the fabric is stressed and damaged when springs buckle under angled loads
Solution Approach 1:
The seam is segmented into multiple portions (first portion, second portion, third portion) that form a curved path rather than a straight line. This segmentation allows the seam to follow the buckling motion of the spring, distributing stress across multiple segments and preventing fabric damage while maintaining manufacturability.
Solution Approach 2:
The seam design is dynamic in nature, curving away from the spring centerline to accommodate the dynamic buckling motion of the spring under load. The curved configuration allows the seam to adapt to the changing position of the spring during compression and relaxation cycles, preventing stress concentration and fabric failure.
2Reliability
If springs are constrained tightly in fabric pockets, then the springs cannot move or buckle, but this reduces comfort and may cause fabric stress
Solution Approach 1:
The seam configuration provides different local qualities: it is tighter near the spring centerline to maintain containment, but curves away and becomes more flexible in the regions where buckling occurs. This localized variation in constraint allows the spring to move comfortably while remaining properly contained.
Solution Approach 2:
The seam parameters (curvature, distance from spring centerline) are changed to accommodate spring motion. The seam is positioned and shaped to allow greater freedom of movement in specific regions while maintaining containment in others, optimizing both comfort and reliability.
3Reliability
If the seam is positioned close to the spring centerline, then the spring is well contained, but the fabric is stressed when the spring buckles under angled loads
Solution Approach 1:
The seam is positioned in another dimensional space relative to the spring - rather than being a straight line at a fixed distance from the centerline, it curves through multiple positions and orientations. This dimensional approach allows the seam to maintain containment while avoiding the high-stress region near the centerline during buckling.
Data Source
AI summary
A bedding or seating product comprises a pocketed spring assembly comprising a plurality of parallel strings of individually pocketed springs. The strings of springs may extend from head-to-foot or side-to-side of the product. Adjacent individually pocketed springs are separated from each other by at least one separating seam. Each of the separating seams comprises a pair of Y-shaped or U-shaped seams which may be joined together or spaced apart.