Safety Edge Prechamber for Soft Obstacle Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing closing edge safety devices are not sensitive enough to trigger a switching process when contacted over a large area, particularly with soft or flexible obstacles, limiting their application in safety-relevant and non-safety applications.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating an antechamber with a switching knob in front of the receiving space, which applies localized pressure and deformation to the safety edge, ensuring even large-area contacts trigger the switching process, and using multiple antechambers for enhanced sensitivity and protection of switching knobs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the safety edge is designed with a simple contact strip without prechamber, then the device structure remains simple, but the switching strip fails to trigger with large-area contact from soft obstacles
Solution Approach 1:
The receiving space is divided into a prechamber and a main chamber. The prechamber contains switching studs that concentrate large-area forces into localized points, while the main chamber houses the contact elements. This segmentation allows the device to respond to both localized and distributed forces effectively.
Solution Approach 2:
The prechamber acts as an intermediary between the obstacle and the switching strip. It transfers and concentrates the force from large-area contact into localized pressure points through the switching studs, enabling the contact elements to trigger even when contacted by soft or flexible obstacles.
2Reliability
If switching studs are exposed on the outside of the profile element, then the switching mechanism remains simple, but the switching studs are vulnerable to mechanical damage and environmental influences
Solution Approach 1:
The switching studs are nested within the prechamber, which is itself nested within the profile element. This nested structure protects the switching studs from mechanical damage and environmental influences while maintaining their functional integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
The prechamber is formed by the elastic profile element itself, creating a protective shell around the switching studs. This flexible shell allows force transmission while protecting the internal components from direct exposure to harsh conditions.
3Reliability
If the contact elements are arranged in a straight line without prechamber, then the device structure remains simple, but large-area contact does not concentrate force sufficiently to trigger switching
Solution Approach 1:
The receiving space is segmented into a prechamber for force concentration and a main chamber for contact element arrangement. This segmentation enables the system to handle both localized and distributed forces effectively.
Solution Approach 2:
The prechamber changes the pressure distribution parameter by concentrating distributed pressure from large-area contact into localized high-pressure points through the switching studs, enabling reliable triggering of the contact elements.
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 enhances the sensitivity of the safety device, allowing reliable triggering with soft obstacles and enabling its use as a limit switch, while protecting the switching knobs from mechanical damage and environmental influences, thus improving personal protection and operational reliability.
Implementation Method 1
The elastically deformable profile element provides robust, durable protection for the switching strip and, due to its elastic deformability, enables both the desired, safety-relevant triggering of the switching strip and, after contact with an obstruction, the return to its original state
Implementation Method 2
a locally confined deformation of the switching strip occurs, which leads to an interruption of the electrical contact of adjacent contact elements
Data Source
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AI summary
For a closing-edge safety device, with an elastically deformable profile element, which comprises a first side for fastening the profile element to a component, and which comprises a second side to be safeguarded, wherein on its second side said device comprises a receiving space in which a safety pressure-sensitive strip with a plurality of electrically conductively connected contact elements is disposed, the invention proposes that the profile element on the second side forms a prechamber in front of the receiving space, and that a switching nub is disposed in the prechamber, wherein, when an external force is applied, causing local deformation of the profile element, the switching nub is designed to interrupt the contact elements of the safety pressure-sensitive strip.