Deployable Solar Tracker Transport Frame for Forklift Handling
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing deployable solar tracker systems face challenges in efficient handling and transportation, as they often require individual handling with cranes and lack integrated supporting legs, making them cumbersome and inefficient to load and unload from transport vehicles and shipping containers.
Innovation Solution
A deployable solar tracker system with foldable panel array sections and a transport frame that allows for joint handling with a forklift, featuring aligned handle openings for easy lifting and a transport frame with end fork-receiving openings for longitudinal handling, enabling efficient loading and unloading through standard shipping container doors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If foldable panel array sections are arranged without a transport frame, then individual handling with cranes is required, but this increases handling time and operational complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple foldable panel array sections into a single integrated transport unit by introducing a transport frame that holds multiple sections together. This merging allows the sections to be handled as one unit using forklift trucks, eliminating the need for individual crane handling of each section and thereby improving handling efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The transport frame acts as an intermediary device between the foldable panel array sections and the forklift truck. It provides a standardized interface with fork-receiving openings that enable forklift insertion, serving as a mediator that translates the lifting capability of forklifts into effective handling of the solar tracker sections.
2Productivity
If foldable panel array sections are handled individually with cranes, then loading/unloading is possible, but this increases loss of time and productivity
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple foldable panel array sections are merged into a single transport unit within the transport frame, allowing them to be loaded and unloaded simultaneously as one unit. This combination dramatically increases productivity by reducing the number of separate handling operations required, thereby minimizing time loss.
3Adaptability or versatility
If standard shipping container doors are used, then transportation is standardized, but individual section handling becomes cumbersome
Solution Approach 1:
The transport frame is designed as a segmented, modular structure that can be disassembled or configured to accommodate the opening mechanisms of standard shipping containers. This segmentation allows the transport unit to adapt to standard shipping infrastructure while maintaining the ability to be efficiently loaded and unloaded using forklift trucks through the container doors.
4Device complexity
If A-shaped support assemblies are shipped separately, then foldable panel array sections can be assembled, but this increases device complexity and handling requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the foldable panel array sections with integrated support legs into a single unified structure. The support legs are built-in to the panel array sections themselves rather than being separate A-shaped assemblies, eliminating the need for separate support component shipping and assembly operations, thereby reducing device complexity while maintaining ease of assembly.
Data Source
AI summary
The deployable solar tracker system comprises a single-axis solar tracker (1) including a plurality of foldable panel array sections (10, 10a). Each foldable panel array section (10, 10a) comprises a shaft section (11), a plurality of support ribs (12) hinged to the shaft section (11), a plurality of solar panels (13) attached to the support ribs (12) and a handling element (28) attached on top of the shaft section (11). The handling element (28) has one or more handle openings (29, 30) dimensioned for receiving one or more lift members oriented in a transversal direction perpendicular to the shaft section (11). The handle openings (29, 30) of the handling elements (28) of the plurality of the foldable panel array sections (10, 10a) are mutually aligned when the plurality of foldable panel array sections (10, 10a) are arranged in a shipping arrangement.