Roller Coaster Seat Restraint for Open View and Easy Boarding
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing amusement device seat assemblies, such as those in roller coasters, often compromise the sense of excitement and freedom for passengers due to obstructive pivot bar constructions and restrictive belt systems, which hinder views and arm movements, and are inconvenient for boarding and disembarking.
Innovation Solution
A seat assembly design featuring a pivot mechanism with a hip bar and pivot arms that can be raised for easy entry and lowered to minimize obstruction, combined with an adjustable belt system with shoulder straps that ensure safety and comfort by allowing variable length adjustment and secure positioning, allowing passengers to experience enhanced freedom and thrill.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a traditional hip bar construction is used with pivot arms in front of the passenger's head, then the passenger is secured in the seat, but the sense of excitement is reduced due to the cage-like effect obstructing the view
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the obstructive pivot arms from the front area and relocates them to the rear of the seat. The hip bar construction is redesigned so that the pivot mechanism is positioned behind the back support surface, extracting the harmful visual obstruction while preserving the security function through the hip bar and shoulder straps
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from a front-facing pivot arm configuration to a rear-facing configuration by changing the spatial dimension of the pivot mechanism placement. The pivot axis is positioned behind the back support surface, moving the mechanism from the passenger's forward view zone to the rear zone, thereby eliminating the visual obstruction while maintaining security
2Reliability
If a pivotable hip bar construction with foot rest platform is used, then the passenger is secured, but the boarding and disembarking speed is reduced and the sense of freedom is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and eliminates the foot rest platform from the seat assembly. Without the foot rest platform, passengers can more easily board and disembark the moving seat, improving productivity while the hip bar and shoulder straps continue to provide secure positioning during the ride
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs a dynamically pivotable hip bar construction that can be raised to facilitate easy boarding and disembarking, then lowered during the ride to secure the passenger. The pivot mechanism allows the bar to transition between raised and lowered positions, optimizing both accessibility and security at different operational phases
3Device complexity
If a fixed length belt system is used, then the structure is simple, but it cannot accommodate passengers of different sizes, reducing comfort and safety
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the fixed length belt system with an adjustable length mechanism that allows the shoulder straps to be modified in length. This dynamic adjustment capability enables the belt system to accommodate passengers of various sizes and positions, enhancing comfort and safety without significantly increasing structural complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements an adjustable length mechanism that changes the physical parameter of belt length to suit different passengers. The mechanism allows modification of the shoulder strap length, enabling the same belt system structure to adapt to various passenger dimensions while maintaining overall system simplicity
Data Source
AI summary
An amusement device, in particular a roller coaster, for providing a sense of excitement to one or more passengers using the amusement device. The amusement device has an elongated track along which one or more amusement device seat assemblies adapted to carry the one or more passengers are moveable. Each seat assembly has a seat with a seating surface and a back support with a back support surface. The seat assembly further includes a bar construction attached to a pivot mechanism. This bar construction has a hip bar and one or more pivot arms integral with the hip bar, which bar construction is pivotable about the pivot axis from a raised position in which the hip bar is raised from the seating surface to allow a passenger to sit down in the amusement device seat assembly, to a lowered position. The bar construction is such that no part of the bar construction takes away the view of the person and limits the movements of the arms of the person, allowing the passenger to experience a great sense of freedom.The seat assembly further includes a belt construction with two shoulder straps and an adjustable length mechanism associated with each shoulder strap to allow for adaptation of the length of the shoulder straps to the size of the passenger in the lowered position of the bar construction such that the shoulder straps are in physical contact with the shoulders and upper part of the body of a passenger seated in the amusement device seat assembly so as to increase the sense of safety of the passenger.