Single-Screw Support Leg for Multi-Piece Furniture Stability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing furniture assembly systems face challenges in securing support legs to only one piece of furniture while effectively stabilizing multiple pieces, ensuring safety and aesthetic appeal.
Innovation Solution
A support leg design with a single opening for screwing into one piece of furniture, featuring a horizontal and vertical protrusion structure that allows it to securely hold and stabilize at least two pieces of furniture, preventing undue rotation and providing stability through a compatible screw or nut thread system.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If a support leg is secured to only one piece of furniture with a single screw opening, then the device complexity and ease of assembly are improved, but the stability and reliability of supporting multiple furniture pieces deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The support leg extends in multiple spatial dimensions with protrusions extending laterally from the main vertical body. This dimensional expansion allows a single vertically-oriented support leg to interface with multiple horizontally-separated furniture pieces, resolving the contradiction between simple single-point attachment and multi-point stability.
Solution Approach 2:
The support leg is segmented into distinct functional zones: a main body for vertical support and multiple protrusions for lateral attachment points. This segmentation allows the single support leg structure to independently interface with multiple furniture pieces at different locations, achieving multi-piece stability through a unified component.
2Ease of manufacture
If the support leg structure is simplified with fewer attachment points, then the ease of manufacture and assembly are improved, but the ability to prevent rotation and ensure safety deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The support leg employs asymmetric positioning of protrusions relative to the main body, with each protrusion located at specific asymmetric positions. This asymmetric configuration naturally resists rotational forces by creating uneven leverage arms, preventing furniture pieces from rotating while maintaining manufacturing simplicity through consistent asymmetric geometry.
3Reliability
If multiple support legs are used to secure multiple furniture pieces, then the stability and safety are improved, but the device complexity and assembly time increase
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple support leg functions are merged into a single integrated component. One support leg combines the stabilizing functions that would traditionally require multiple separate support legs, featuring multiple protrusions that simultaneously interface with multiple furniture pieces, thereby maintaining stability while accelerating assembly.
Solution Approach 2:
The single support leg is designed as a universal component capable of supporting multiple different furniture pieces simultaneously. The multi-functional design allows one support leg to perform the work of several traditional support legs, improving assembly productivity without sacrificing the stability needed for securing multiple pieces.
Data Source
AI summary
A support leg for furniture having only one opening that allows a screw to secure the support leg to one piece of furniture within the furniture assembly system is described. The support leg is constructed in such a manner that this one opening allows the support leg to support at least two pieces of furniture together within the furniture assembly system, even though the support leg is physically secured to only one piece of furniture.