Spring Sheet Gasket Retainer With Non-Convex Capture Apertures
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing gasket retainers for fluid pathway joints in semiconductor manufacturing are prone to handling damage due to sharp corners and require close dimensional tolerances, making them delicate and difficult to manufacture.
Innovation Solution
A flexible, flat sheet retainer with specially shaped apertures that capture gaskets without sharp corners, allowing for easy handling and manufacturing, featuring oval, elliptical, D-shaped, or triangular apertures that engage gaskets and fasteners without convexity, enabling secure and leak-free fluid pathway joining.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If traditional gasket retainers with sharp corners are used, then gasket alignment is achieved, but handling damage occurs and manufacturing precision is difficult to maintain
Solution Approach 1:
The retainer design replaces sharp corners with curved surfaces throughout its structure. The outer periphery features a continuous curved surface instead of angular corners, and the gasket engagement surfaces use radiused edges. This curvature eliminates stress concentration points that cause handling damage while maintaining effective gasket alignment and sealing surfaces.
2Reliability
If close dimensional tolerances are required for gasket retention, then secure gasket holding is achieved, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The design changes the geometric parameters of the retainer features to achieve functional equivalence with relaxed tolerances. The curved engagement surfaces provide gradual contact with the gasket, distributing stress and allowing larger dimensional variations while maintaining secure retention. The continuous curved outer periphery provides inherent alignment features that reduce the need for tight manufacturing tolerances on individual features.
3Shape
If sharp corners are present in retainer design, then structural definition is clear, but handling damage and manufacturing difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The retainer employs curved surfaces throughout its structure to maintain clear structural definition without sharp corners. The continuous curved outer periphery provides well-defined engagement surfaces for the gasket, while radiused edges on internal features maintain geometric clarity. This curved geometry eliminates handling damage risks while preserving the structural precision needed for proper gasket alignment and sealing.
Data Source
AI summary
A gasket retainer that is absent sharp corners, has apertures of reasonable dimensional tolerance, and may be conveniently made by a variety of manufacturing processes. The retainer is made from thin flat springy material that readily returns to form after slight bending. Representative gasket capturing apertures are of smoothly non-convex outline with major dimension sufficiently large to allow passage of a ring shaped gasket turned on edge and minor dimension sufficiently small to engage, on approximately opposite circular segments that each engage along less than one third of a gasket circumference, a cavity or groove on the outside diameter periphery of the gasket turned flat parallel to the retainer material sheet. Fasteners may be retained by similar apertures.