Soft Box Mount With Spring-Biased Bar Block Release
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional soft box light shapers are inconvenient to use due to mechanisms that require accessible sheaths or crowded space for latch levers, restricting design flexibility and usability.
Innovation Solution
A soft box mount with a receiver block and bar block system, where the bar block moves between non-use and use positions under spring bias, allowing expansion and collapse with a press button to compress the spring, enhancing design flexibility and user accessibility.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If sheaths are used to block ribs from returning to non-use position, then the soft box can be maintained in expanded position, but the sheaths must be readily accessible and easily movable which restricts design flexibility
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the blocking function from individual sheaths and relocates it to a centralized latch lever mechanism. The latch lever is pivotally connected to the armature and engages with a blocking element on the sheath, allowing the sheath to maintain position without requiring user accessibility or movability. This centralizes the control function and frees the sheath from operational constraints.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention introduces a latch lever as an intermediary mechanism between the user and the sheath. Instead of directly manipulating the sheath to maintain position, the user operates the latch lever which then engages with the sheath's blocking element. This intermediary transfers the blocking function while eliminating the need for direct sheath accessibility.
2Ease of operation
If latch levers are pivoted towards the armature to release ribs, then the soft box can be collapsed, but space is already crowded in that area requiring design restrictions
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of pivoting the latch lever towards the armature (inward), the invention inverts the motion direction by having the latch lever pivot away from the armature (outward). The blocking element is positioned such that outward pivoting of the latch lever disengages it from the sheath, releasing the rib. This inversion eliminates the space conflict with the armature area.
3Reliability
If sheaths are made accessible and movable for blocking ribs, then the soft box can be maintained in position, but this requires restrictions on the design of the soft box
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the position maintenance function from the sheath structure itself and assigns it to a separate latch lever mechanism. The sheath becomes a simple structural component without operational complexity, while the latch lever handles the blocking function. This separation eliminates design restrictions on the sheath's form and placement.
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 soft box mount facilitates easy expansion and collapse of soft boxes, improving usability and design flexibility by allowing parallel motion of bar blocks and optional radial orientation, enhancing the convenience of soft box operation.
Implementation Method 1
a spring biasing the bar block towards a radially outward side, to the use position
Data Source
AI summary
Soft box mount, including a receiver block for receiving an expander strut of a soft box. The receiver block includes, in this order, an inward part, a transverse pivot axis, and an outward part, the outward part of the receiver block being configured to receive a proximal end of the expander strut; and a bar block which is configured to be movable between a first, non-use position, in which the inward part of the receiver block may intrude into a recessed part of the bar block, and a second, use position, in which a non-recessed part of the bar block urges, from a light source side, the inward part of the receiver block to assume a position radially inward of the pivot axis of the receiver block, thereby urging the outward part of the receiver block to assume a position radially outward of the pivot axis of the receiver block.