Shower enclosure with a pivotable shower door

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Solution Overview

Problem

Shower partitions with pivoting doors attached to side walls face issues with dirty and difficult-to-clean areas near the wall due to the door's edge proximity, and existing designs often require multiple attachment points, complicating installation and maintenance.

Innovation Solution

A shower partition design featuring a support rod with spaced transverse bars that pivot about its longitudinal axis, allowing the shower door to be attached at a distance from the side edge, reducing contact points and creating a gap for easy cleaning, with adjustable mounting devices for ceiling or wall attachments and a ball joint for floor stability.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If the shower door is attached close to the side wall to ensure effective splash protection, then splash protection is improved, but the area near the wall becomes dirty and difficult to clean

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvesplash protectionVSAvoidcleaning ease
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The support structure is segmented into multiple components: a support rod with multiple attachment points, where at least one attachment point is positioned at a distance from the side edge of the shower door. This segmentation allows the door to be supported both near the wall for splash protection and at a distance for cleaning accessibility, resolving the contradiction between these two requirements.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

2Stability of the object's composition

If the shower door is attached to the side wall with multiple attachment points, then stability is improved, but the number of attachment points increases making installation and maintenance more complex

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedoor stabilityVSAvoidattachment points complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Stability of the object's compositionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The support rod serves multiple functions: it provides structural support, enables pivoting motion, and offers multiple attachment points at different distances from the side edge. This multi-functionality allows the system to achieve stability through distributed attachment points while maintaining relatively simple overall structure, as the support rod integrates several functions that would otherwise require separate components.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Data Source

PatentEP3586704B1Shower enclosure with a pivotable shower door
Publication Date: 2021.11.17 PALME GROUP GMBH
  • EP3586704B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3586704B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP3586704B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

A shower enclosure (1) is provided with at least one shower door (2) having a flat or curved panel (3) which is pivotable to at least partially close or open an entrance opening and which is held by a support bar (4) which is equipped at one end with a floor fixing (5) suitable for resting on a floor (7), on the edge of a shower tray or the like, and at the other end with a wall fixing device (6) or a ceiling fixing device.The object of the present invention is to provide a shower enclosure equipped with a shower door (2) whose side edge facing a side wall or similar is spaced away from the side wall (12) when open (entrance opening is uncovered), while the shower door (2) is arranged as close as possible to the side wall (12) or similar when closed (entrance opening is closed) to ensure effective splash protection. This object is achieved by a shower enclosure (1) characterized in that the support bar (4) has at least two spaced-apart crossbars (9, 9') which are each pivotally mounted on the support bar (4) about the longitudinal axis (13) of the support bar by means of a pivot (10) and are attached to the glass pane (3) of the shower door (2) by means of a suspension (11) at a distance from a side edge (12) of the glass pane (3).