Space creating shower liner with pleated window
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Solution Overview
Problem
Shower curtain liners tend to swell inwardly during use, occupying space and causing discomfort due to water flow and air movement, and existing solutions with counterweights are bulky and expensive.
Innovation Solution
A space-creating shower liner system featuring a pleated window and liner design with a hoop fin that rotates about a shower rod, utilizing a fulcrum and weight to maintain distance from the user, and optionally including a curtain for additional coverage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a shower curtain liner is used to keep water within the bathtub, then water containment is improved, but the liner swells inwardly occupying space in the showering area causing discomfort
Solution Approach 1:
The shower liner is designed to extend beyond the vertical plane between the rod and tub, utilizing the third dimension by rotating outward around the rod. This dimensional change allows the liner to maintain water containment while occupying space outside the showering area, eliminating the swelling inward problem.
Solution Approach 2:
The liner transitions from a static hanging position to a dynamic rotating position. By enabling the liner to rotate outward around the rod, the system adapts to maintain an effective barrier against water while preventing inward swelling that causes discomfort.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If stiff members with counterweights are used to hold the shower curtain liner away from the user, then space creation is improved, but the solution becomes bulky and expensive to manufacture, package and ship
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts and eliminates the complex counterweight mechanism from the system. Instead of using stiff members with counterweights, the solution relies on the simple rotational movement of the liner around the rod, removing the bulky and expensive components while maintaining the space-creating function.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention replaces expensive, complex counterweight systems with a simple, lightweight liner design that achieves the same functional effect through rotational movement, significantly reducing manufacturing and shipping costs.
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 system effectively keeps the shower area clear by rotating the liner and curtain outward, preventing water from exiting the tub while maintaining a comfortable showering experience without the bulk and expense of traditional counterweight solutions.
Implementation Method 1
a weight causes the first element and the liner to rotate about the fulcrum
Implementation Method 2
A space creating shower liner can have a first element suspended from a fulcrum and having a weight
Data Source
AI summary
A space creating shower liner can have a window with a hoop fin rotatably and removably engaging a shower rod, a plurality of stiffening folds providing partial stiffness to the window, and a height less than a distance from the shower rod to a tub. Further, a liner can be removably engaged to the window, comprising a liner height less than the distance from the shower rod to the tub. The hoop fin causes the window and the liner to rotate about the shower rod, and the height and the liner height is greater than or equal to the distance from the shower rod to the tub.