Stowable Vehicle Floor Mat Barriers for Package Stability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicle floor mats fail to effectively secure objects during transportation, leading to potential damage and driver distraction due to shifting packages.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle floor mat with moveable barriers that can be deployed to create a confined region, limiting horizontal movement of packages, featuring telescoping support arms and boots that collapse into the mat body when not in use, ensuring secure containment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If barriers are added to secure packages on the floor mat, then package stability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The barriers are nested within the mat body when stowed, with the support arms and boots collapsing into the mat structure. This nesting approach allows the barriers to be integrated into the mat without adding permanent external structures, resolving the contradiction by providing stability when needed while maintaining simplicity when not in use.
Solution Approach 2:
The barriers are designed to be movable between a stowed position (integrated into the mat) and a deployed position (extending upward to secure packages). This dynamic configuration allows the system to adapt between two states: simple and compact when barriers are stowed, and stable and functional when barriers are deployed, thus resolving the stability-complexity contradiction.
2Stability of the object's composition
If barriers extend vertically to confine packages, then package containment is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The barriers utilize the weight of packages placed on them to automatically engage and lock into the confined position. The boots collapse around the support arms under their own weight when deployed, creating a self-securing mechanism that does not require additional manual operation, thus maintaining ease of operation while achieving effective containment.
3Device complexity
If barriers are stowed within the mat body, then device complexity is reduced, but package security deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The barriers transition from a stowed configuration (integrated into the mat body for simplicity) to a deployed configuration (extending upward for security). This dynamic transformation allows the system to provide package security when needed while maintaining a simple, low-complexity appearance when barriers are retracted, resolving the contradiction between security and complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A vehicle floor mat for a passenger foot well or a cargo area of an automotive vehicle comprising a mat body and first and second barriers mounted to the mat body. The first and second barriers are moveable between a stowed position, in which the first and second barriers are at least partially received within the mat body, and a deployed position, in which the first and second barriers extend away from the mat body. Each of the first and second barriers comprises a support arm housed within a boot. When the first and second barriers are in the deployed position, opposing surfaces of the first and second barriers together define a confined region therebetween in which a package can be contained during transportation thereof.