Screen Guide Assembly With Flexible Retainers for Storage Wear
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing screen apparatuses face issues with deformation, damage, and wear of rigid protrusions due to repeated expansion and storage, necessitating multiple guide unit types for different screen materials, and contact between supporting members and needle-like parts causing wear and tear.
Innovation Solution
A screen apparatus with a first guide formed by pivotally connected guide units, featuring outward-directed pins and rail parts, and detachable screen retaining members with bendable bases, allowing needle-like parts to avoid contact with supporting members, and separate storage regions for guides, using a looped tension member with direction-changing members.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If rigid protrusions are used to stab and hold the screen end portion, then the screen can be prevented from slipping out, but the rigid protrusions suffer from deformation, damage, and wear due to repeated expansion and storage
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces rigid protrusions with flexible needle-like parts that can bend and deform elastically. These needle-like parts are attached to the guide units and can flexibly engage with the screen end portion, preventing it from slipping out while accommodating repeated expansion and storage cycles without permanent damage or wear.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the physical state of the holding component from rigid to flexible. The needle-like parts are designed with specific flexibility parameters that allow them to deform during engagement and disengagement, absorbing mechanical stress and preventing damage to both the guide units and the screen.
2Reliability
If multiple kinds of first guide units are used for different screen materials, then screen damage can be prevented, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent designs a universal first guide unit structure that can accommodate different screen materials through the flexible needle-like parts. The same guide unit design works for various screen types (mesh, fabric, vinyl, etc.) because the needle-like parts can adjust their engagement force and deformation characteristics, eliminating the need for multiple specialized guide unit types.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent separates the holding function into independent needle-like parts that can be attached to standard guide units. This modular approach allows the same guide unit structure to serve multiple screen types by simply changing or adjusting the needle-like parts, rather than designing entirely different guide units for each screen material.
3Ease of operation
If the supporting member is positioned to support the direction changing member, then the tension member can change direction, but the supporting member contacts the needle-like parts causing wear and tear
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the direction-changing function from the supporting member by providing a separate direction changing member (such as a pulley or guide wheel). The supporting member's role is reduced to simply supporting this separate component, which eliminates direct contact between the supporting member and the needle-like parts, preventing wear and tear while maintaining directional control of the tension member.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a direction changing member as an intermediary between the supporting member and the tension member. This intermediary component handles the directional change of the tension member without requiring the supporting member to contact the needle-like parts, thus protecting the needle-like parts from wear while achieving the desired mechanical advantage.
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
Prevents damage to screens by allowing needle-like parts to bend away from supporting members, reducing wear and tear, and enabling smooth parallel sliding and storage without guide collisions, using a single guide unit type for various screens.
Implementation Method 1
needle-like parts aligned at a distance to all stab one end portion in the Z-axis direction of the expanded screen... needle-like parts to bend away from supporting members
Implementation Method 2
one of two adjacent first guide units is pivotally supported by the other, whereby the first guide not only bends to the other side in the Z-axis direction but also maintains linearity in the X-axis direction
Implementation Method 3
a tension member that is stored in the inside of the slidable frame and connects the free ends of the first guide and the second guide
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3A~3B
AI summary
A tension member 8 formed into a loop is disposed in a Z-axis direction, an inside of a slidable frame 2 is divided into a first storage portion 22 for storing a first guide 6 at one side in the X-axis direction and a second storage portion 23 for storing a second guide 7 at the other side in the X-axis direction, both the first storage portion 22 and the second storage portion 23 allow the tension member 8 to pass, a direction changing member 15 on which the tension member 8 is hung and which causes a direction of the tension member 8 to change in the Z-axis direction is provided in each of the insides of one end portion and the other end portion in the Z-axis direction of the slidable frame 2, one of the direction changing members 15 is disposed through a supporting member 16 at one end portion in the Z-axis direction of the first storage portion 22, a pair of relieving pieces 16a2, 16a2 extending in the Z-axis direction and opposing to each other in a Y-axis direction are provided with the supporting member 16, and each of the relieving pieces 16a2 comes into contact with needle-like parts 92 of each of screen retaining members 9 and causes the needle-like parts 92 to bend so as to move away from the supporting member 16 in a Y-axis direction when the first guide 6 is drawn from and stored in the first storage portion 22.