Precious Metal Bar Segmentation for Low-Cost Small Bullion
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Solution Overview
Problem
The production of small denomination bullion bars of precious metals is expensive due to individual manufacturing costs, and existing methods do not efficiently reduce these costs or improve handling.
Innovation Solution
Producing a single ingot of larger mass, which is then divided into smaller ingots with a material connection between them, allowing for separation without tools, using embossing or forming processes to create predetermined breaking points and grooves for precise mass distribution.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If individual small bullion bars are produced separately, then each bar can be individually handled and marked, but the manufacturing cost per bar is high
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides a large ingot into multiple smaller ingots arranged in rows and columns, connected by material connections. This segmentation allows the large ingot to be produced efficiently as a single unit while enabling subsequent separation into individual small bars, thus reducing manufacturing cost per bar while maintaining production efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines multiple small ingots into a single large ingot structure with material connections between them. This merging allows all small ingots to be produced, marked, and handled as one unit during manufacturing, significantly improving production efficiency and reducing per-unit costs, while still allowing individual separation when needed.
2Manufacturing precision
If many individual small bars are produced separately, then each bar has precise mass, but the handling and processing of each bar is time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs the mass distribution and division into small ingots in advance during the formation of the large ingot, rather than separating individual bars later. The material connections are predetermined with breaking points, so that when separation is needed, it can be done quickly by hand without time-consuming individual processing of each bar.
3Strength
If small ingots are firmly connected to ensure structural integrity, then bending under gravity is avoided, but the material connection must be strong enough to require tools to separate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates material connections with different properties at different locations: the connections are strong enough to prevent bending under gravity during handling and transport, but contain predetermined breaking points where the material is weaker, allowing easy manual separation when needed. This local variation in connection strength resolves the contradiction between structural integrity and ease of separation.
Data Source
Figure 1~4D
Figure 5A~6
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AI summary
A bar made of precious metal or an alloy containing precious metal, with a mass mB, is subdivided into small bars 2, 3, each with a desired mass, arranged in several rows and several columns, with a material connection (8) between the immediately adjacent small bars (2, 3). Another bar is connected to a support (13) on which the small bars are detachably mounted. A method for manufacturing the bar consists of subdividing it while maintaining a material connection or by arranging the subdivided bars on a support.