Pool Cover Hinge Mechanism for Buoyancy and Winding
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional swimming pool covers with rigid connections between blades suffer from reduced buoyancy due to narrow slats and increased joints, leading to inefficient winding and storage constraints, while flexible connections result in larger flotation modules and gaps around the pool edge.
Innovation Solution
A swimming pool cover design featuring blades with rigid and flexible portions that allow lateral movement, enabling adjustable length coverage and improved buoyancy through a hinge-type connection mechanism, allowing for partial engagement of male and female wings for relative pivoting.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If narrow slats are used to fit the circular profile of the drum, then the cover winds efficiently, but the deck has more joints and reduced buoyancy
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies a flexible connection mechanism between slats that allows dynamic adjustment. The flexible part enables the slats to pivot relative to each other during winding, accommodating the circular drum profile, while simultaneously providing play-free engagement that maintains structural integrity and buoyancy. This dynamic flexibility resolves the contradiction between winding efficiency and buoyancy retention.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the connection parameter from rigid fixed-position joints to flexible play-free joints. This parameter change allows the connection to adapt during winding operations while maintaining sufficient structural rigidity for buoyancy. The flexible part's ability to deform within specific limits enables both efficient winding and adequate buoyancy support.
2Stability of the object's composition
If rigid male-female connections are used between slats, then the structure is stable, but the articulation requires significant gaps reducing buoyancy
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces rigid male-female connections with a flexible connection mechanism. The flexible part acts as a thin film element that provides articulation between slats without requiring significant gaps. This flexible connection maintains stability through play-free engagement while preserving buoyancy by minimizing the gap between slats, directly resolving the contradiction between connection stability and buoyancy retention.
3Reliability
If wide flotation modules are used to reduce the number of joints, then buoyancy increases, but gaps remain between the deck and pool edge
Solution Approach 1:
The flexible connection mechanism enables the deck to dynamically adjust its overall length through cumulative pivoting of slats. This dynamic adjustment capability allows the deck to fit precisely to various pool lengths while maintaining wide flotation modules for adequate buoyancy, resolving the contradiction between buoyancy and adjustability.
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 achieves both enhanced buoyancy and efficient rolling up of the cover, allowing for precise adjustment to pool length and minimizing gaps around the pool edge, thereby improving coverage and storage efficiency.
Implementation Method 1
at least one flexible portion connecting two flotation modules... allowing relative pivoting between adjacent slats, thus enabling the curtain to roll up
Implementation Method 2
each shaped into a respective flotation module... allow the slat to float on the water's surface
Data Source
Figure 1~3
Figure 4~6
Figure 7~9
AI summary
A pool cover element comprises a profile section (1) with at least two rigid portions, each shaped into a respective flotation module (10, 20, 30). The element also includes a flexible portion (40) connecting two flotation modules (10, 20, 30) to each other. The element further comprises a first portion (200) and a second portion (300) capable of engaging with the first portion (200) of an adjacent corresponding cover element. The first portion (200) and the second portion (300) are rigid and shaped such that their mutual engagement allows lateral movement of the element relative to the adjacent element.