Retractable Load-Bearing Cover Segmentation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional covers are not capable of bearing loads, such as the weight of an adult, and lack self-supporting structural integrity, making them unsuitable for use as a load-bearing surface.
Innovation Solution
A retractable load-bearing cover system comprising a track with deployable and retractable sections that can be automatically coupled and decoupled, allowing for compact vertical stacking and storage, utilizing a drive system and storage mechanism to manage the sections, ensuring they remain in a horizontal orientation when stacked.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If conventional flexible pool covers are used, then the cover can be easily deployed and provides basic covering function, but the cover cannot bear loads and lacks self-supporting structural integrity
Solution Approach 1:
The cover is divided into multiple rigid panels that can be segmented and stored separately. Each panel is structurally independent with load-bearing capabilities, allowing the cover to support loads when deployed while enabling compact storage when retracted by stacking individual panels vertically.
Solution Approach 2:
The cover system transitions from a static conventional cover to a dynamic retractable system. The panels can be deployed along a track to provide load-bearing coverage or retracted and stacked vertically for compact storage, allowing the system to adapt its configuration based on operational requirements.
2Volume of moving object
If a retractable load-bearing cover with multiple panels is used, then the cover can be stored in a compact configuration, but the mechanism for coupling and decoupling panels increases device complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The coupling mechanism integrates multiple functions into a single automated system. The drive system simultaneously performs panel transport along the track, alignment, and coupling/decoupling operations, reducing the need for separate manual operations and simplifying the overall user interaction despite the mechanical complexity of the automated system.
Solution Approach 2:
The automated drive system performs the coupling and decoupling of panels without requiring manual intervention. The system self-manages the complex operations of aligning, connecting, and disconnecting panels, reducing operational complexity for the user while enabling compact storage configuration.
3Volume of moving object
If the cover sections are separated and vertically stacked for storage, then the storage compactness is improved, but the mechanism for maintaining horizontal orientation during stacking increases device complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The storage mechanism uses gravity as an ally rather than an obstacle. By designing the vertical stacking system to naturally maintain horizontal panel orientation through gravitational force and proper structural support, the system achieves compact storage without requiring complex active control mechanisms to prevent panel tilting or rotation.
4Ease of operation
If an automated drive system is used for deploying and retracting the cover, then the ease of operation is improved, but the use of energy increases
Solution Approach 1:
The automated drive system operates periodically rather than continuously - activating only when deployment or retraction is required. The system moves panels along the track in discrete steps, engages/disengages coupling mechanisms only when needed, and enters a dormant state during normal operation, thereby reducing overall energy consumption while maintaining ease of operation when activation is required.
Data Source
AI summary
A retractable load-bearing cover apparatus is selectively deployable and retractable along a track defining a path of travel between first and second terminus points. The load-bearing cover apparatus includes a plurality of sections that are deployable along the track in a first direction, and retractable along the track in a second, opposite direction, wherein adjacent ones of the plurality of sections are releasably engagable to one another. The cover apparatus includes a drive system for deploying and retracting the sections along the track, and a storage system for disengaging the sections and arranging such disengaged sections into a vertically stacked orientation.