Resilient Pad Packaging Box for Watch Testing Precision
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for testing and timing timepieces, such as watches or mechanical timepiece movements, face challenges in ensuring reliable and automated handling while safeguarding the mechanisms, maintaining product traceability, and allowing for precise interventions during chronometric tests and other evaluations.
Innovation Solution
A packaging box with a base and lid designed to hold removable trays, each with resilient pads that center and secure timepieces, along with a manipulator device for automated manipulation and testing, enabling precise positioning and access for sensors or tools through aligned orifices for efficient testing and timing operations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If timepieces are handled multiple times for testing and timing operations, then testing reliability and chronometric certification are improved, but the risk of mechanism damage and handling errors increases
Solution Approach 1:
The packaging box is divided into multiple compartments, each capable of holding a single timepiece. This segmentation allows individual handling and testing of each timepiece while maintaining protection during transfer between testing operations.
Solution Approach 2:
Resilient pads are pre-installed in each compartment to provide cushioning and protection for the timepiece mechanism. These pads absorb shocks and vibrations during handling and testing operations, preventing damage before it occurs.
2Productivity
If automated manipulators are used for handling timepieces, then productivity and automation extent are improved, but the complexity of handling equipment increases
Solution Approach 1:
The packaging box design serves multiple functions: it protects timepieces during transport, positions them for automated handling, provides cushioning, and facilitates testing operations. This multi-functionality reduces the need for specialized equipment for each operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The resilient pads and compartment design automatically position and secure timepieces without requiring complex adjustment mechanisms. The box itself provides the positioning and protection functions that would otherwise require additional automated equipment.
3Manufacturing precision
If resilient pads are pressed onto timepieces by the lid, then positioning precision and centering are improved, but the force applied to the mechanism increases
Solution Approach 1:
The resilient pads are designed with specific material properties and dimensions that allow them to provide sufficient centering force while remaining within safe pressure limits for the timepiece mechanism. The lid applies force that is distributed through the pads to achieve precise positioning without excessive point loads.
Solution Approach 2:
The resilient pads are positioned at specific locations within each compartment to provide centering force where needed while avoiding areas where the timepiece mechanism is most sensitive to pressure. This localized approach achieves precision without applying harmful forces.
4Reliability
If multiple tests including water resistance and magnetic field sensitivity are conducted, then comprehensive testing coverage is improved, but the testing time and process complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The packaging box serves as a universal container that accommodates various types of testing operations. The same box and compartment design supports chronometric testing, water resistance testing, and magnetic field sensitivity testing, eliminating the need for different specialized containers for each test type.
Solution Approach 2:
Timepieces are pre-positioned in the packaged box with resilient pads in place before testing begins. This preliminary positioning and protection setup allows multiple test types to be conducted without repeated handling and repositioning, saving time across the entire testing sequence.
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 provides reliable, automated, and efficient handling of timepieces during testing and timing operations, ensuring accurate results while maintaining mechanism safety and product traceability, and allowing for precise interventions in various conditions.
Implementation Method 1
at least one resilient pad arranged to be centred in the compartment and to be pressed onto a timepiece by the lid when the box is closed
Data Source
AI summary
A watch packaging box including a base containing a removable tray, a lid cooperating in a complementary manner with the base to close the box, the tray including compartments for receiving a watch, each delimited by a bottom and a partition, the box including, centred inside each compartment, a resilient pad pressed onto a watch by the lid in the closed position, and the box includes, in each compartment, a main orifice for passage of a sensor or tool, included in a device performing a watch testing and/or timing method, on the watch occupying the compartment, and each resilient pad includes a secondary orifice aligned with a main orifice for access of the sensor or tool to the watch.