Profile Element Support Structure with Self-Tapping Grooves
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing support structures require significant assembly effort due to complex mechanics and the need for pre-drilled holes, making it difficult to quickly and easily connect profile elements and adjust their positions.
Innovation Solution
The support structure features surface-structured fastening grooves with three-dimensionally structured groove walls, allowing fastening screws to be fixed form-fittingly without using the groove bottom, enabling easy assembly and adjustment of profile elements without additional tools or complex mechanics.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If conventional connection methods with pre-drilled holes and angle brackets are used, then the support structure can be assembled, but the assembly effort and time are considerable
Solution Approach 1:
The fastening grooves are pre-formed in the profile elements during manufacturing, eliminating the need for on-site drilling and preparation. The grooves are positioned and sized in advance to receive standard fastening screws, allowing direct insertion and fixation of connecting elements without additional tools or complex mechanics
Solution Approach 2:
The invention extracts the fastening function from complex angle brackets and multi-step drilling operations, isolating it into simple surface-structured grooves that directly receive fastening screws. This separation simplifies the connection mechanism to basic screw insertion into pre-formed grooves, dramatically reducing assembly effort and time
2Adaptability or versatility
If T-nuts and complex fastening mechanisms are used in fastening grooves, then profile elements can be connected and repositioned, but the manufacturing and assembly become comparatively complex
Solution Approach 1:
The fastening groove design allows the fastening screw itself to create the necessary threading and fixation directly in the groove walls during insertion and tightening. The three-dimensionally structured groove walls self-form the threaded engagement, eliminating the need for separate T-nuts or pre-installed threading mechanisms. The groove structure serves its own fastening function without requiring additional components
Solution Approach 2:
The grooves are pre-formed with three-dimensionally structured walls during profile element manufacturing, preparing the fastening interface in advance. This preliminary structuring of the groove walls enables direct screw fixation without requiring T-nuts or complex fastening mechanisms to be installed separately, simplifying both manufacturing and assembly
3Device complexity
If the groove bottom is used for fixing the fastening screw, then the groove structure is simpler, but the fastening strength and stability are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The invention transitions from fixing the fastening screw at the groove bottom (one-dimensional depth fixation) to fixing the screw along the groove walls (two-dimensional surface engagement). The three-dimensionally structured groove walls provide extended engagement surfaces that wrap around the screw threads, creating stronger mechanical interlocking and more stable fixation distributed across the groove wall surfaces rather than concentrated at the groove bottom
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3~4
Figure 5~6
AI summary
A support structure has several elongated profile elements (1) which are connected to each other by connecting elements (17, 21, 22), wherein the profile elements (1) have a bottom surface (3) and a top surface (2) opposite each other, each having flat and parallel contact surface areas (4, 5, 16), so that the profile elements (1) can be placed on a substrate with the bottom surface (3) and floor covering elements can be placed on the top surface (2) of the profile elements (1).The profile elements (1) have at least one fastening groove (9) in at least one side wall (6) connecting the underside (3) to the top side (2), such that connecting elements (17, 21, 22) can each be secured by fastening elements engaging laterally in the fastening grooves (9) in at least one fastening groove (9) of a profile element (1) to be fastened, in order to effect a connection with an adjacent profile element (1). At least one groove wall (11) of the fastening groove (9) has a three-dimensionally structured groove wall surface (13), such that a fastening screw can be screwed into the surface-structured fastening groove (9) and a threaded section of the fastening screw can be positively locked between the two groove wall surfaces (13).