Resilient Grip Handle with Material Bridges for Adjustable Leash
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing animal leashes face challenges in controlling the grip, as it is difficult to achieve both ease of sliding and adequate gripping force, leading to either slippage or inability to adjust the grip to a desired location.
Innovation Solution
A flexible leash with a grip handle made of resilient rubber material featuring internal cavities and a leash passage design that focuses gripping force through material bridges, providing secure friction without requiring excessive force, and allowing for easy sliding and adjustment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the grip is made firm to prevent slippage, then the gripping force is adequate, but the grip cannot be readily adjusted along the leash to a desired location
Solution Approach 1:
The grip handle transitions from a static structure to a dynamic one that can change its gripping characteristics. By applying compression force, the resilient material deforms to create friction and grip the leash securely. When the force is released, the material returns to its original shape, allowing the handle to slide freely along the leash for adjustment.
Solution Approach 2:
The physical state of the grip handle is changed by applying compression force, which alters the friction characteristics of the resilient material. This parameter change enables the handle to switch between a sliding state (low friction) and a gripping state (high friction), resolving the contradiction between adjustability and stability.
2Ease of operation
If the grip is made light to allow easy adjustment, then the grip can be readily moved along the leash, but the grip will slide along the line rather than restrain the animal
Solution Approach 1:
The grip handle uses the user's hand compression as a dynamic trigger to activate the gripping function. The resilient material remains in a low-friction state during normal use, allowing easy adjustment, but transitions to a high-friction state when compressed, providing secure restraint of the animal.
Solution Approach 2:
The user's natural gripping action on the handle automatically activates the restraint function. The compression of the resilient material by the user's hand self-generates the friction force needed to grip the leash, eliminating the need for separate locking mechanisms or additional user actions.
3Reliability
If excessive gripping force is applied to secure the leash, then the grip stability is improved, but the force required to adjust the grip becomes unmanageable
Solution Approach 1:
The compression force is concentrated locally at the point where the user's hand grips the handle. This localized force is sufficient to deform the resilient material and create the necessary friction for securing the leash, without requiring excessive overall force that would make adjustment difficult.
Solution Approach 2:
The friction coefficient of the resilient material is changed locally and temporarily through compression. This parameter change occurs only in the region where the user applies force, allowing secure gripping with minimal overall force, while the rest of the handle remains easy to move for adjustment purposes.
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 enables secure gripping and easy adjustment of the leash, minimizing slippage and twisting, while requiring minimal gripping force, thus enhancing user control over the animal.
Implementation Method 1
the main body being formed of a resilient material
Implementation Method 2
The animal leash described herein uses friction between the internal surfaces of the rubber handle and the flexible line of the leash to securely grip the handle relative to the flexible line of the leash.
Data Source
AI summary
An animal leash has a flexible line extending from a connector that attaches to the animal. A grip handle is supported for sliding at an intermediate location along the line. The grip handle has a main body with a leash passage receiving the line therethrough and an outer surface for gripping in a hand of a user. Two cavities formed within the main body at a location between one of the major surfaces of the leash passage and the outer surface so as to define a material bridge extending radially outward from the major surface to the outer surface whereby a radially compressive force applied to the outer surface is transferred through the material bridge to the major surface of the passage so as to collapse the passage and grip the line to prevent sliding of the grip handle along the line when applying compressive force.