Powered Vehicle Side Step With Telescoping Load-Bearing Supports
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional electric-powered side steps are vulnerable to damage, complex, expensive, and suffer from misalignment and power transmission issues due to bearing user loads, limiting their functionality and reliability.
Innovation Solution
An electric-powered side step assembly with telescoping lateral support structures using rotatable sliding rods and cylinders connected by universal joints, allowing non-linear trajectories and separate power transmission, eliminating the need for complex guiding mechanisms and reducing production costs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional electric-powered side steps use fixed trajectory mechanisms to extend and retract the drop step, then the power transmission components can reliably transmit force, but the device complexity increases and the mechanism is exposed to environmental hazards
Solution Approach 1:
The invention divides the side step mechanism into two independent functional systems: a power transmission system (motor, gears, belts) that provides driving force, and a support system (telescoping lateral supports with universal joints) that bears user loads and enables flexible movement. This segmentation allows each system to be optimized independently, reducing overall complexity while maintaining reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention extracts the load-bearing function from the power transmission mechanism by introducing separate telescoping lateral supports. This removes the burden of user loads from the motor and power transmission components, allowing them to operate without the complexity of fixed trajectory constraints while maintaining reliable power transmission.
2Reliability
If the side step assembly uses a fixed trajectory mechanism for extending and retracting, then the power transmission components are protected from user loads, but the device complexity increases and production cost rises
Solution Approach 1:
The invention segments the mechanism into power transmission components (motor, gears, belts) and load-bearing components (telescoping supports with universal joints). This segmentation protects power transmission components from user loads while using simpler, more cost-effective universal joints instead of complex fixed-trajectory guiding mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the degrees of freedom parameter of the lateral supports by introducing universal joints, allowing the supports to rotate in multiple directions and accommodate non-linear trajectories. This parameter change enables flexible movement paths without requiring complex fixed-trajectory guiding mechanisms, reducing production costs.
3Device complexity
If the side step assembly uses telescoping lateral support structures with universal joints for non-linear trajectories, then the device complexity is reduced and production cost decreases, but the power transmission components may be subject to misalignment
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the trajectory-defining function from the power transmission mechanism and assigns it to the telescoping lateral supports with universal joints. This separation allows the power transmission components to operate without alignment concerns, as the supports accommodate non-linear trajectories independently through their universal joint design.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention introduces dynamic flexibility to the lateral supports through universal joints, allowing them to adapt their orientation and trajectory during extension and retraction. This dynamic capability ensures that power transmission components remain properly aligned while the supports follow non-linear paths determined by universal joint rotation.
4Use of energy by moving object
If the side step assembly decouples load-bearing from power transmission, then the power consumption is reduced and reliability is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention segments the mechanism into load-bearing telescoping supports and power transmission components, allowing the motor to only provide force for extension and retraction without bearing user loads. This segmentation reduces power consumption while using simple universal joints and limit stops to manage the decoupled functions.
Solution Approach 2:
The telescoping lateral supports with universal joints provide self-service by automatically bearing user loads and defining movement trajectories without requiring active control or complex mechanisms. The limit stops passively define the extended position, reducing the burden on the power transmission system and lowering power consumption.
Data Source
AI summary
An extendable and retractable drop step positioned below a door of a vehicle to assist a person in climbing into the vehicle includes a driving linkage mechanism for moving the drop step to and from an extended position, and a telescoping lateral support arm structure having left and right swing arms respectively connected at both ends to a main support and to sides of the drop step by universal joints that rotate and pivot in multiple directions so that the support arm structure bears loads on the step without interfering with a trajectory of the step determined by the driving linkage mechanism. An extended position of the step is defined by limit stops or positioning limiting mechanisms included in the support arm structure.