Rope-and-Pin Coupling for Lightweight High-Load Connections
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing coupling devices, such as steel shackles, are heavy, bulky, and difficult to handle, requiring multiple persons for safe deployment, and can cause catastrophic failure with potential injury and damage due to stored energy release.
Innovation Solution
A coupling device comprising a flexible elongate member made of multiple rope sections, preferably of Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene, ensheathed with a protective cover, and a pin, allowing for a toggle mechanism to form smaller loops, reducing weight and bulk while maintaining strength.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If steel shackles are used to ensure high strength and load-bearing capacity, then the coupling device achieves high strength, but the weight and bulkiness increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The coupling device uses a composite construction combining steel components (pin, anchor) with synthetic rope sections. The steel parts provide structural strength and load-bearing capacity, while the synthetic rope sections reduce overall weight and bulkiness compared to traditional all-steel shackles, yet maintain high strength through the combination of materials
Solution Approach 2:
The coupling device is divided into separate functional components: a pin, an anchor, and multiple rope sections. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized for its specific function - the steel pin and anchor for strength, and the synthetic rope for flexibility and weight reduction - while working together to achieve high load-bearing capacity with reduced weight
2Strength
If steel shackles are used to ensure high strength, then the coupling device achieves high strength, but the ease of operation deteriorates due to difficulty in manual handling
Solution Approach 1:
The synthetic rope sections replace heavy steel linkages while maintaining sufficient strength through high-tensile materials. This composite construction reduces the overall weight and flexibility of the device, making it easier to manually handle, deploy, and store while still achieving high load-bearing capacity through the steel pin and anchor components
Solution Approach 2:
The coupling device incorporates flexible rope sections that can dynamically adapt to handling positions and deployment configurations. This flexibility allows a single person to easily manipulate the device into the required coupling configuration, unlike rigid steel shackles that require precise alignment and multiple persons for safe deployment
3Strength
If steel shackles are used to ensure high strength, then the coupling device achieves high strength, but the stored energy release causes catastrophic failure and safety hazards
Solution Approach 1:
The synthetic rope sections have different failure characteristics compared to steel - they tend to deform and absorb energy progressively rather than storing elastic energy and releasing it catastrophically. When the coupling device fails, the synthetic rope sections reduce the risk of violent elastic rebound and projectile formation, while the steel pin and anchor maintain the required load-bearing capacity
Solution Approach 2:
The invention converts the potential harmful effect of stored elastic energy in steel into a beneficial progressive failure mode through the use of synthetic rope sections. These sections deform and absorb energy in a controlled manner under extreme load, transforming what would be a catastrophic sudden failure into a more predictable and safer failure progression
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 device is lightweight, easy to handle, and safer, with controlled failure mode, minimizing injury risk and enabling single-person deployment, while maintaining high load-bearing capacity.
Implementation Method 1
Metal shackles have a high capacity for stored energy including in a form of elastic yielding of the material of the shackle when under high loading when approaching its break strength
Data Source
AI summary
A coupling device comprising a flexible elongate member of at least one length of an at least twice wound rope and a pin configured to be removably engaged with the flexible elongate member, wherein the flexible elongate member is formed as a loop or a part loop completing the loop with the pin, wherein at least one winding of rope is of disparate length to at least one other winding.