3D Printed Scale Supports with Internal Cavities
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional scales face challenges in achieving stability and resistance to damage while maintaining a low weight, often requiring thick steel plates that increase weight and cost, and additional stiffeners that are expensive to manufacture and attach.
Innovation Solution
The scale uses additive manufacturing processes like 3D printing or extruded profiles for the upper and lower supports, allowing for hollow chamber designs with cavities that can house electrical components and provide exceptional rigidity and stability with reduced weight, and connects these supports directly or indirectly to a weighing cell.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If thick steel plates are used for frame structures, then rigidity and stability are improved, but weight increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs hollow chamber profiles with thin-walled structures that provide high rigidity-to-weight ratios. The hollow chambers act as structural elements that maintain strength while minimizing material usage, allowing the frame structures to achieve required stiffness without the excessive weight of solid thick plates.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent utilizes composite construction by combining hollow chamber profiles with stiffening elements. The frame structures integrate multiple functional components (support, stiffening, cable routing) into a unified hollow profile design, achieving enhanced rigidity through structural composition rather than simply increasing material thickness.
2Stability of the object's composition
If additional stiffeners are added to frame structures, then post-oscillation behavior is improved, but manufacturing complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the functions of frame structures, stiffeners, and cable routing into integrated hollow chamber profiles. The hollow profiles inherently provide stiffening effects while simultaneously serving as conduits for electrical cables, eliminating the need for separate stiffening components and reducing assembly operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The hollow chamber profiles perform multiple functions simultaneously: structural support, stiffening to control oscillation, and cable routing channels. This multi-functionality reduces the total number of components required and simplifies manufacturing by eliminating separate stiffening elements that would need to be attached to the frame.
3Ease of manufacture
If electrical cables run externally on supports, then ease of installation is improved, but protection against damage and environmental factors is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent nests electrical cables inside the hollow chambers of the frame structures. The hollow profiles act as protective conduits that shield cables from mechanical damage, environmental exposure, and electromagnetic interference, while the cables remain easily accessible for installation and maintenance through designated openings or access points in the hollow structures.
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
This design results in a scale that is lightweight, stable, and cost-effective to produce, with minimal additional components, offering improved oscillation behavior and protection for electronic components, suitable for various applications from table scales to vehicle scales.
Implementation Method 1
the upper support and/or the lower support are manufactured by an additive process, in particular by 3D printing or by laminated object manufacturing (LOM) or by selective laser sintering (SLS)
Implementation Method 2
the upper support and/or the lower support are manufactured by an additive process, in particular by 3D printing or by laminated object manufacturing (LOM) or by selective laser sintering (SLS)
Implementation Method 3
The scale uses additive manufacturing processes like 3D printing or extruded profiles for the upper and lower supports, allowing for hollow chamber designs with cavities that can house electrical components and provide exceptional rigidity and stability with reduced weight
Implementation Method 4
an upper support (1) and a lower support (2), which are connected to one another via a load cell (3) manufactured separately from the supports (1, 2)
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a scale with an upper support and a lower support connected to each other via a load cell manufactured separately from the supports, wherein the upper support is designed as a hollow body having at least one cavity, and/or the lower support is designed as a hollow body having at least one cavity. The scale is characterized in that the upper support and/or the lower support are manufactured by an additive process, in particular by 3D printing or by Laminated Object Manufacturing (LOM), or by Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), or that the upper support and the lower support are each manufactured from an extruded profile, and/or in that at least one electrical conductor, in particular to the load cell, runs in the cavity, and/or an electronic circuit arrangement is arranged therein.