Slotted Inner Piston Cartridge for Thrust Plate Misalignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cartridges for viscous materials face issues with damage due to angular or positional offsets of the thrust plate in caulking guns, leading to bulges or cracks in soft cardboard bodies, especially when using film bags, which complicates complete emptying and disposal.
Innovation Solution
The inner piston features a slot extending axially or radially, providing flexibility to compensate for angular or positional offsets, ensuring the outer piston maintains contact with the cartridge body, allowing for thin-walled or soft material construction without damage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a thrust plate is used to apply force to the inner piston, then the viscous material can be extruded through the dispensing outlet, but angular or positional offsets of the thrust plate cause the piston unit to drift away from the longitudinal axis, leading to bulges or cracks in the cartridge body
Solution Approach 1:
The inner piston is made dynamically adaptable by introducing a slot that allows it to flex and adjust its position. This dynamic feature enables the piston to compensate for misalignment forces from the thrust plate, maintaining axial alignment with the cartridge body while still transmitting the extrusion force effectively.
Solution Approach 2:
The slot in the inner piston changes the structural parameter of the piston from rigid to flexible. This parameter change allows the piston to absorb angular and positional deviations through elastic deformation, preventing force transmission to the cartridge body that would cause damage.
2Ease of manufacture
If the cartridge body is made from soft material like cardboard for environmental reasons, then sustainability is improved, but the cartridge body becomes more susceptible to damage from piston drift and thrust plate misalignment
Solution Approach 1:
The slot in the inner piston introduces dynamic flexibility that compensates for the reduced strength of cardboard cartridge bodies. By allowing the piston to self-adjust and remain centered, the system protects the weaker cardboard material from damaging lateral forces during operation.
3Manufacturing precision
If the inner piston is made rigid to maintain precise alignment, then positioning accuracy is improved, but the piston cannot compensate for thrust plate misalignment, causing damage to the cartridge body
Solution Approach 1:
The slot transforms the inner piston from a rigid component to a flexible one that can dynamically adjust to misalignment conditions. This allows the piston to maintain functional alignment with the cartridge body even when subjected to angular or positional offsets from the thrust plate.
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 ensures reliable emptying and prevents damage to the cartridge body, enabling use of flexible materials like cardboard while maintaining sealing and preventing thrust plate misalignment issues.
Implementation Method 1
the inner piston has a piston body in which at least one slot is provided which extends in an axial direction from the spreader ring to a positioning surface for the thrust plate of the caulking gun
Data Source
AI summary
Inventions disclosed are a cartridge for viscous material and a piston unit for the cartridge, usable in a caulking gun, the cartridge comprising: a cylindrical cartridge body having a proximal end and a distal end, a cartridge cap on the distal end of the cartridge body and comprising a dispensing outlet; and a piston unit comprising an outer piston, an inner piston and a spreader ring, the outer piston, inner piston and the spreader ring being movable along a longitudinal axis of the cartridge body, the outer piston being widened in the radial direction by the spreader ring when the inner piston is pressed against the spreader ring or the outer piston by the caulking gun; wherein the inner piston has a piston body comprising at least one slot that extends axially from the spreader ring to a positioning surface for a thrust plate of the caulking gun.