Semi-Impermeable Pocketed Spring Core for Slow-Acting Cushioning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing seating and bedding products with visco-elastic foam pads provide a luxury feel but retain heat and are expensive to manufacture, while lacking the slow-compression and slow-recovery characteristics desired.
Innovation Solution
A pocketed spring core assembly using semi-impermeable fabric materials, such as spun-bonded polypropylene or multi-layered fabrics, to slow down air flow and mimic the compression and recovery properties of visco-elastic foam pads, allowing for cost-effective manufacturing on existing equipment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If visco-elastic foam pads are used to provide luxury feel and slow compression/recovery, then comfort is improved, but heat retention increases and manufacturing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses porous foam material with controlled cell structure that allows air circulation while maintaining slow compression and recovery characteristics. The porosity enables heat dissipation while preserving the visco-elastic comfort properties, resolving the contradiction between comfort and heat retention.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention combines foam material with fabric covering to create a composite structure. The fabric layer provides breathability and heat dissipation while the foam core maintains the slow compression/recovery characteristics, achieving both comfort and reduced heat retention.
2Ease of operation
If visco-elastic foam pads are used to achieve slow compression and recovery, then luxury feel is improved, but manufacturing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent modifies the density and cell structure parameters of conventional foam material to achieve slow compression and recovery characteristics. By adjusting these physical parameters rather than using expensive visco-elastic materials, the invention maintains luxury feel while reducing manufacturing cost.
3Ease of manufacture
If conventional foam material is used for cushioning, then manufacturing cost is reduced, but slow compression and recovery characteristics are lost
Solution Approach 1:
The invention changes the physical parameters of foam material, specifically the cell density and wall thickness, to extend the compression and recovery time. This allows conventional foam to exhibit slow-acting characteristics without requiring expensive visco-elastic materials.
Solution Approach 2:
By controlling the porosity and cell structure of the foam material, the invention creates resistance to air flow within the cells during compression and recovery. This extends the duration of the compression action while maintaining cost-effective manufacturing.
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 solution provides a luxurious feel with reduced heat retention and lower production costs, achieving similar slow-compression and slow-recovery characteristics to visco-elastic foam pads without the heat retention issues, using existing manufacturing processes with minimal equipment modifications.
Implementation Method 1
The fabric is semi-impermeable to air flow through the fabric material... air may pass through such a semi-impermeable material, but at a very reduced rate compared to the rate at which air usually flows freely through a fabric material
Implementation Method 2
each spring maintained in a pocket of the fabric retards or slows the rate at which the spring may compress under load or return to its original height when a load is removed
Data Source
AI summary
Spring cushions (10) having slow-acting pocketed spring cores (12) characterized by the individual springs of the cores (12) being pocketed within semi-impermeable fabric material and a method of making such pocketed spring cores (12). Cushioning material is located between adjacent rows of pocketed springs to reduce noise.