Post-Molded Expandable Athletic Gear Components
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Solution Overview
Problem
The manufacturing of athletic gear and personal protective equipment often requires multiple molds for different sizes and is limited by the molding process, which restricts customization and efficiency.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating post-molded expandable components made from a polymeric substance and expandable microspheres, allowing the material to expand after molding, thereby enhancing shock absorption, reducing material usage, and enabling customization through adjustable sizes and properties.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If multiple molds of different sizes are used to manufacture parts, then parts of different sizes can be produced, but device complexity and manufacturing cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
A single mold is designed to produce parts of multiple sizes by incorporating expandable components that can be adjusted after molding. The mold itself remains fixed in size, but the produced parts can vary in size through post-molding expansion of integrated expandable elements, allowing one mold to serve multiple size requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces dynamically adjustable components into the molded parts, specifically expandable elements that can change size after the molding process. This dynamic capability allows a single static mold to produce parts with variable dimensions, eliminating the need for multiple fixed-size molds.
2Productivity
If molding process is used to create parts, then parts can be manufactured efficiently, but customization and size adjustment are restricted
Solution Approach 1:
The molding process efficiently produces base parts with integrated expandable components in advance. The customization capability is built into the part design during molding, allowing efficient mass production of standardized components that can later be customized through expansion without requiring complex custom molding processes for each variation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent incorporates parameters for size adjustment directly into the molded parts through expandable components. These components can change their physical parameters (size, volume) after molding, enabling customization while maintaining the efficiency of the original molding process for producing the base structure.
3Volume of moving object
If more material is used to create larger parts, then part size increases, but weight and material cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent utilizes expandable foamed thermoplastic materials that contain gas bubbles or voids within the polymer structure. These porous expandable materials provide low density and light weight in the initial molded state, yet can be expanded to increase volume. The foam structure allows volume increase without proportional weight increase, as the expansion primarily introduces air or gas rather than additional solid material.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines thermoplastic polymer materials with expandable agents or foamed structures to create composite materials. This composite approach allows the material to have both structural integrity from the polymer and volume expansion capability from the foamed or expandable components, achieving large volumes with minimal weight penalty.
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 enhanced shock absorption, reduced weight, and cost-effective manufacturing while allowing for customization, improving the fit and performance of athletic gear and personal protective equipment.
Implementation Method 1
an expandable material molded into an initial shape and expandable to an expanded shape that is a scaled-up version of the initial shape in response to a stimulus after molding
Data Source
AI summary
A device (e.g., an article of athletic gear) comprising a post-molded expandable component, which is a part of the device that is configured to be expanded or has been expanded after being molded. This may allow the post-molded expandable component to have enhanced characteristics (e.g., be more shock-absorbent, lighter, etc.), to be cost-effectively manufactured (e.g., by using less material and/or making it in various sizes), and/or to be customized for a user (e.g., by custom-fitting it to the user).