Variable-Diameter Spring Guide for Buckling-Free Actuating Arms
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing actuating arm drives with compression springs and guide devices suffer from buckling movements and associated noise and wear due to radial clearance changes as the spring is loaded, requiring guide devices to be designed for minimum or maximum diameters, leading to inefficient operation.
Innovation Solution
A guide device with a variable diameter over its length to compensate for changes in the compression spring's diameter, ensuring a snug fit and preventing buckling, which can be achieved through a prestressed sleeve design with a slot, allowing for material savings and reduced noise and wear.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the guide device is designed for the smallest inside diameter of the compression spring, then the guide device can accommodate the spring in its unloaded state, but radial clearance appears when the spring is loaded causing buckling movement and noise
Solution Approach 1:
The guide device incorporates a variable diameter design where at least one cross-section can change its diameter dynamically. This allows the guide device to adapt its internal diameter to match the changing diameter of the compression spring during loading and unloading cycles, eliminating radial clearance and preventing buckling movement while maintaining reliable guidance throughout the spring's operational range.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the geometric parameter of the guide device by providing at least one cross-section with variable diameter. This parameter change enables the guide device to compensate for the diameter variation of the compression spring under different loading conditions, ensuring continuous contact and eliminating the harmful radial clearance that causes noise and wear.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If the guide device is designed for the largest outside diameter of the compression spring, then radial clearance is avoided in loaded state, but the guide device becomes overly complex and material-intensive
Solution Approach 1:
Rather than designing a statically oversized guide device, the invention employs a dynamic structure where at least one cross-section of the guide device can vary its diameter. This dynamic adaptation allows the guide device to match the spring's diameter precisely at different loading stages, eliminating radial clearance without requiring an overly complex or material-intensive design.
3Ease of manufacture
If a rigid guide device with fixed diameter is used, then manufacturing is simple, but it cannot compensate for diameter changes of the compression spring under load
Solution Approach 1:
The guide device transitions from a rigid, fixed-diameter structure to a dynamic structure where at least one cross-section can vary its diameter. This enables the guide device to compensate for the compression spring's diameter changes under load while maintaining manufacturing feasibility through the use of flexible or adjustable components.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention modifies the geometric parameters of the guide device by introducing variable diameter cross-sections. This allows the guide device to adapt to the changing dimensions of the compression spring during operation, ensuring reliable guidance and preventing buckling while remaining manufacturable.
4Reliability
If the guide device diameter is made variable to compensate for spring diameter changes, then radial clearance is eliminated and buckling is prevented, but the guide device structure becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The guide device employs a dynamic design with at least one variable diameter cross-section that adapts to the compression spring's diameter changes. This dynamic structure eliminates radial clearance and prevents buckling and noise while maintaining reasonable complexity through the use of flexible or adjustable mechanisms rather than overly complex rigid structures.
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 the guide device maintains a play-free contact with the compression spring, preventing buckling and noise, optimizing the spring guide's efficiency and accommodating manufacturing tolerances, while reducing material usage and noise.
Implementation Method 1
a force storage means (104) having two base portions (6, 7) which are moveable relative to one another in order to lift and lower the furniture part (101)
Implementation Method 2
the guide device can support the compression spring in all positions thereof against buckling of the compression spring
Data Source
AI summary
An actuating arm drive for driving a movably mounted furniture part of a furniture item, includes at least one arrangement consisting of a compression spring and at least one guiding device for guiding the compression spring. The at least one guiding device has an at least partly variable diameter in order to compensate for a radial clearance between the compression spring and the guiding device, taking into account the change in diameter of the compression spring when the compression spring is loaded.