Modular Pool Panel with Pre-Curved Surface for Planarity
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing modular pool panels made of plastic material suffer from defective planarity, resulting in a ripple effect on the inner walls of pools due to deformations during the manufacturing and formwork process, which are not adequately addressed by adding reinforcing ribs.
Innovation Solution
A modular panel design featuring a first surface with an initial convex transverse curve in the plastic injection mold, allowing the curve to compensate for deformations in both transverse and longitudinal directions, ensuring correct planarity of the inner pool walls, with a maximum amplitude ranging from 0.2% to 0.7% of the panel's width, and incorporating longitudinal peripheral wings with fastening members and locking mechanisms for assembly.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If modular panels are made with planar surfaces in injection molds, then manufacturing is simple and cost-effective, but the inner walls of pools exhibit defective planarity with ripple effects
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-introducing a convex transverse curve in the injection mold that anticipates the future deformation of the panel. This preliminary shaping ensures that after removal from the mold and during concrete setting, the panel achieves the desired planar configuration, thereby resolving the contradiction between simple manufacturing and high precision planarity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs preliminary anti-action by creating an initial convex curvature in the opposite direction of the expected deformation. This counter-curvature compensates for the anticipated ripple effect, allowing the panel to straighten into a planar position after molding, thus maintaining both manufacturing simplicity and wall precision.
2Strength
If reinforcing ribs are added to panels, then structural strength is improved, but the ripple effect and planarity defects are not adequately addressed
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of relying solely on reinforcing ribs, the patent applies preliminary action by pre-shaping the panel with a convex transverse curve in the injection mold. This preliminary configuration proactively compensates for deformation, achieving both structural integrity and planarity without the need for additional reinforcing elements that would complicate the design.
3Productivity
If panels are removed from molds and concrete is set, then the formwork process is completed, but deformations occur causing ripple effects on inner surfaces
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-introducing the convex transverse curve during the injection molding process, before the panel is removed from the mold. This ensures that the panel is already pre-compensated for deformation, allowing rapid formwork completion while maintaining planarity, thus resolving the contradiction between productivity and precision.
Data Source
AI summary
A modular panel made of plastic material for manufacturing pool walls comprises: a generally rectangular main body of which a first surface is intended for being oriented toward the inside of the pool, the lengths of the main body defining a reference plane; a complementary body capable of being attached to a second surface of the main body and defining a hollow column intended for receiving concrete, wherein the first surface has an initial convex transverse curve on the width of the main body in a plastic injection mold, the maximum amplitude of the transverse curve relative to the reference plane being selected to compensate for all or part of the deformations that occur between the removal from the mold and the setting of the concrete, in the transverse and longitudinal directions.