Segmented Flexible Pet Door with Horizontal Rolling Cylinder
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional pet doors, whether manual or electronic, face issues such as injury risk to pets due to rigid flaps, poor sealing leading to drafts, and security risks from unauthorized entry, with motor-driven doors requiring significant vertical space.
Innovation Solution
A pet door system featuring interlocking, flexible and rigid segments that rotate around a horizontal axis, allowing for vertical flexibility and horizontal rigidity, which can be wound around a cylinder for space-efficient installation and includes a locking mechanism to prevent intruders, with magnetic seals to secure the flap against wind and allow easy passage for pets.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If rigid flaps are used in manual pet doors, then security and sealing are improved, but the risk of injury to pets increases
Solution Approach 1:
The door is divided into multiple rigid segments that can articulate relative to each other. This segmentation allows the door to maintain structural rigidity for security and sealing while providing flexibility through the articulation joints to prevent pinching and injury to pets.
Solution Approach 2:
The door transitions from a static rigid structure to a dynamic articulated structure. The segments can move relative to each other, allowing the door to adapt its shape during operation to prevent injury while maintaining rigidity when closed for security and sealing.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If flexible flaps are used in manual pet doors, then safety for pets is improved, but sealing performance deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The flexible flap is segmented into multiple rigid sections connected by articulation joints. This allows the door to maintain flexibility and safety for pets while the rigid segments provide structural integrity for sealing when closed.
Solution Approach 2:
The door combines rigid segments with flexible articulation mechanisms, creating a composite structure that exhibits both rigidity for sealing and flexibility for safety, leveraging the advantages of both material types.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If flexible flaps are used in manual pet doors, then safety for pets is improved, but resistance to wind and sealing capability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The door is segmented into rigid sections that can articulate, providing both the flexibility needed for pet safety and the structural rigidity required to resist wind forces and maintain sealing capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The articulated structure allows the door to dynamically respond to wind forces while maintaining its sealing position, combining the safety benefits of flexibility with the strength needed to resist environmental forces.
4Reliability
If motor-driven panels are used, then security and sealing are improved, but vertical space requirement increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of lifting the door panel vertically above the opening as in conventional motor-driven doors, this invention inverts the approach by rolling the segmented door horizontally around a cylinder within the wall opening, eliminating the need for significant vertical clearance.
Solution Approach 2:
The door movement is transitioned from vertical lifting to horizontal rolling around a cylinder. This dimensional change allows the door to achieve secure closure and sealing without requiring vertical space above the opening.
5Reliability
If rigid door panels are used in motor-driven doors, then sealing is improved, but the space above the opening must be doubled
Solution Approach 1:
The conventional approach of lifting rigid panels vertically is inverted by rolling the segmented rigid door horizontally around a cylinder, maintaining sealing performance while eliminating the volume requirement above the opening.
Solution Approach 2:
The rigid door is segmented to allow it to be rolled around a cylinder, maintaining the structural integrity needed for sealing while enabling compact horizontal storage within the wall opening.
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 system provides a safe, well-sealed, and space-efficient pet door solution that prevents injury to pets and unauthorized entry while allowing easy passage for pets, maintaining a secure and draft-free environment.
Implementation Method 1
magnetic seals to secure the flap against wind and allow easy passage for pets
Data Source
AI summary
A pet door system is provided including a casing configured to attach the pet door system to a building and a flexible door attached to the casing. In some embodiments, the door is segmented and comprises a plurality of interlocking segments that are rotatable with respect to each other. In some embodiments, the pet door system further includes a rotating cylinder attached to the flexible door and rotatably connected to the casing and a motor comprising a gear head, where the gear head is attached to the rotating cylinder, such that when the motor is activated, the gear head is rotatable in a first direction to wind the flexible door around the rotating cylinder. In some embodiments, the pet door system may be operated by a pet-worn collar and/or may be remotely controlled via a mobile device.