Pull-Out Guide Tubular Profile Design to Reduce Torsional Lowering
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Solution Overview
Problem
Pull-out guides for furniture experience significant torsional stress, leading to uneven running surfaces and increased insertion forces due to torsion, which results in a lower front end of the furniture piece when extended, requiring higher closing forces.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating a tubular section on the center rail with supplementary parts or tabs that form a channel around the circumference, increasing torsional rigidity and reducing torsional stress, thereby minimizing the lowering effect and enhancing load capacity without increasing the lowering under load compared to conventional designs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If conventional sheet metal profiles are used for extension rails, then the structure is simple and easy to manufacture, but the rails experience significant torsion under load causing uneven running surfaces and increased insertion forces
Solution Approach 1:
The extension rail profile is segmented into a hollow body with internal channels, creating multiple structural compartments that enhance torsional rigidity. The profile includes a vertical web and horizontal webs forming a complex hollow structure with rolling element channels, transforming a simple sheet metal profile into a multi-chambered torsion-resistant structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The extension rail employs a composite sheet metal profile structure combining multiple bent metal sections to form a hollow body with internal channels. This composite profile design integrates the vertical web and horizontal webs into a unified torsion-resistant structure that maintains ease of manufacture while significantly improving strength.
2Stability of the object's composition
If the extension rail is subjected to torsion, then the running surfaces tilt causing the furniture section to lower in extended position, but increasing structural support to prevent this increases weight and complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The rail structure is divided into multiple hollow chambers formed by the vertical web and horizontal webs, creating a lightweight yet torsion-resistant profile. The segmented hollow body design provides structural stability to maintain running surface evenness while minimizing material usage and weight compared to solid sections.
Solution Approach 2:
The composite sheet metal profile forms a hollow body with internal channels that provides high torsional rigidity relative to its weight. The integrated structure of vertical and horizontal webs creates a lightweight framework that maintains running surface stability without requiring excessive material.
3Ease of operation
If rollers are mounted on extension rails with torsion, then the running surfaces become uneven requiring higher insertion and closing forces, but reducing torsion through structural changes increases manufacturing complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The profile is segmented into standard sheet metal components (vertical web, horizontal webs) that can be manufactured and assembled using conventional processes. The hollow body with channels is formed through standard bending and joining operations, maintaining ease of manufacture while improving operational performance.
Solution Approach 2:
The composite profile design uses standard sheet metal forming techniques to create the hollow body structure. The vertical web and horizontal webs are fabricated using conventional bending processes and joined through standard connection methods, ensuring the design remains manufacturable with existing equipment and processes.
Data Source
Figure 1~3
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Figure 9~11
AI summary
A pull-out guide for extending a pull-out furniture part (5) from a furniture carcass (4) has at least two rails (1, 2, 3) that are slidable relative to each other and are formed from or comprise formed sheet metal profiles (17, 21, 27). At least one of the rails (1, 2, 3) has, over at least a section of its longitudinal extent, at least one channel (20, 23, 29) extending in the direction of the longitudinal extent of the rails (1, 2, 3), which is bounded by wall sections that, viewed in a direction parallel to the longitudinal extent of the rail (1, 2, 3), together extend over the entire circumference around the channel (20, 23, 29). (Fig. 16)