Slotted Core Cushioning Bladder for Flat Pre-Inflation Geometry
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cushioning components in wearable articles, such as footwear, face challenges in achieving desired geometries and ease of manufacturing while maintaining fluid communication within the bladder and preventing the formation of sealed chambers.
Innovation Solution
A cushioning component with a core made of a polymeric sheet featuring spaced slots and anti-weld material, such as blocker ink, is bonded to barrier sheets to control bond patterns, ensuring fluid communication and allowing for precise geometry control without creating sealed chambers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a fluid-filled bladder is used as a cushioning component, then cushioning performance is improved, but the component cannot maintain a flat configuration prior to inflation
Solution Approach 1:
The bladder is segmented into multiple chambers by partition walls, allowing different regions to serve different functions. The first chamber maintains flat configuration before inflation while the second chamber provides cushioning when inflated, resolving the contradiction between maintaining flat shape and providing cushioning performance.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the bladder are given different properties through strategic placement of partition walls and varying wall thicknesses. The first chamber is designed to remain flat while the second chamber is designed for inflation, creating local quality differences that resolve the overall shape contradiction.
2Manufacturing precision
If the bladder is designed to remain flat before inflation, then manufacturing precision is improved, but cushioning performance is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
By dividing the bladder into two distinct chambers separated by partition walls, the design allows the first chamber to maintain manufacturing precision and flat configuration while the second chamber provides cushioning performance when inflated, thus resolving the contradiction between precision and performance.
Solution Approach 2:
The bladder transitions from a static flat configuration in the first chamber to a dynamic inflated state in the second chamber. This dynamic design allows the component to achieve both flat configuration for manufacturing precision and cushioning performance when needed.
3Shape
If partition walls are added to create multiple chambers, then controlled geometry is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The bladder is segmented into multiple chambers using partition walls that are integrated into the existing bladder structure. This segmentation achieves controlled geometry while minimizing additional complexity by using the same material and manufacturing processes.
Solution Approach 2:
The partition walls are merged with the bladder walls as a single integrated structure rather than separate components. This merging approach achieves controlled geometry while reducing device complexity by eliminating the need for separate assembly steps and reducing the number of parts.
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 solution enables precise control over the geometry of the cushioning component, facilitating ease of manufacturing and maintaining fluid communication, while preventing the formation of sealed chambers, thus enhancing performance and manufacturing efficiency.
Implementation Method 1
a gas in the interior cavity displaces the core from the opposing inner surfaces at unbonded areas of the core
Data Source
AI summary
A cushioning component for a wearable article includes a bladder with barrier sheets defining an interior cavity. A core is disposed in the interior cavity and is spaced entirely inward of a peripheral bond between the barrier sheets. The core traverses the interior cavity between and is bonded to the opposing inner surfaces of the barrier sheets at a plurality of bonds. The core includes at least one polymeric sheet defining a plurality of spaced slots extending therethrough, each slot having a first end and a second end with both the first end and the second end inward of an outer perimeter of the core such that the core includes a plurality of strips bordering the slots and decoupled from one another at the slots, each strip bonded to at least one of the first barrier sheet or the second barrier sheet by at least one of the bonds.