Sectional Door Wicket Panel Manufacturing with Material Bridges
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing method for manufacturing sectional doors with wicket doors is time-consuming due to the need for precise measurement and drilling of holes for hinges, requiring dimensional accuracy and risking warpage or torsion during installation and operation.
Innovation Solution
The method involves making cuts in panels with material bridges to keep parts connected, allowing for initial drilling of holes without measuring, followed by severing bridges and assembling parts with pre-drilled coupling members, such as hinges, to maintain dimensional tolerance and simplify production.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If cuts are made completely through the panels to remove parts for wicket door installation, then the wicket door can be provided at the desired location, but the panels lose structural integrity and require manual positioning during assembly, increasing time consumption and risk of warpage
Solution Approach 1:
Holes for coupling members are drilled in advance through the material bridges before the bridges are severed. This preliminary action allows precise hole positioning to be established while the panel structure is still intact and stable, eliminating the need for time-consuming on-site measuring and drilling by the consumer.
Solution Approach 2:
The panel is divided into sections by cuts that are interrupted by material bridges. The bridges maintain structural connectivity during manufacturing while allowing the panel to be separated into functional sections (main panel and wicket door opening) after the bridges are severed, enabling easy assembly without compromising dimensional accuracy.
2Productivity
If holes for hinges are drilled after panels are cut and parts are separated, then the wicket door can be assembled, but precise positioning becomes difficult and time-consuming requiring manual measuring and fitting
Solution Approach 1:
All necessary holes for coupling members are pre-drilled in the factory through the material bridges before the bridges are severed. This transfers the complex measuring and drilling operations to the factory setting where precision tools and fixtures can be used, eliminating time-consuming on-site operations by the consumer.
Solution Approach 2:
The pre-drilled holes with inserted coupling members automatically serve as positioning references during assembly. The coupling members themselves guide the alignment of panel parts, eliminating the need for the consumer to perform measuring or fitting operations.
3Manufacturing precision
If material bridges are kept intact during drilling operations, then dimensional accuracy is maintained, but the bridges must be severed later requiring additional steps
Solution Approach 1:
The material bridges serve as temporary connectors that are severed after they have fulfilled their purpose of maintaining structural integrity during hole drilling. The bridges are cut after holes are drilled and coupling members are inserted, at which point their structural function is no longer needed. This sequential segmentation allows precise hole positioning while enabling easy final assembly.
Data Source
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AI summary
A description is given of a method in which a sectional door, which is built up of hinged panels and a wicket door, is manufactured by making cuts in the material of the respective panel at the location where the wicket door is to be provided. The cuts are interrupted by material bridges via which the part to be cut out of the panel remains connected to a neighbouring part of the panel. Subsequently, coupling members, which are usually hinges, are fixed across the cuts and onto neighbouring parts of the panel, and the material bridges are severed, after which the peripheries of the parts are finished and the parts of the panel are assembled together. The method is very time saving, in particular in the post-production stage preceding final assembly at the customer's location.