Support element and method for its realisation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing support elements for body comfort, such as mattresses and pillows, face challenges in air circulation and thermal regulation due to continuous gel layers that prevent airflow, and modular designs that can become squashed, leading to inadequate ventilation and increased production costs.
Innovation Solution
A support element comprising a first layer of gel associated with a second layer of a different material, featuring through openings for optimal air circulation and thermal regulation, with a non-stick film to prevent faults and ensure effective air passage, allowing a contact surface area of 50% or greater for reduced pressure and enhanced comfort.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If a continuous layer of gel is used to ensure comfort and weight distribution, then the contact surface area increases, but air circulation is prevented and thermal regulation is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The gel layer is designed with a porous structure containing numerous air channels that allow air circulation while maintaining the continuous layer configuration. This enables the gel to provide comfort and weight distribution through increased contact surface area while simultaneously allowing air flow for thermal regulation, resolving the contradiction between contact area and air circulation.
2Object-generated harmful factors
If modular elements are used to enable air circulation, then air passage is improved, but the elements can become squashed together and production complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The gel layer is segmented into multiple zones with different viscosities and mechanical properties within a single continuous structure. This segmentation allows different regions to perform specialized functions (e.g., higher viscosity zones for support, lower viscosity zones for air circulation) while maintaining structural integrity and avoiding the need for separate modular elements that would increase assembly complexity.
3Stability of the object's composition
If modular elements with anchoring means are used to prevent squashing, then structural stability is improved, but manufacturing time and labor costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The gel layer is merged with the foam support layer in a single integrated structure, eliminating the need for separate modular elements and anchoring means. The combined structure achieves structural stability through the synergistic properties of the gel-foam composite while simplifying manufacturing to a single production process, thereby improving productivity without compromising stability.
4Reliability
If a non-stick film is applied to the gel layer to prevent faults, then material integrity is improved, but air circulation may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
A thin, microporous non-stick film is applied to the gel layer. This film is sufficiently thin and porous to allow air molecules to pass through while providing the necessary non-stick properties to prevent material faults and maintain integrity. The film's selective permeability resolves the contradiction between material reliability and air circulation.
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 enables optimal air circulation and thermal regulation, maintaining elasticity and adaptability while reducing production time and costs by simplifying the manufacturing process, ensuring maximum user comfort and effective transpiration.
Implementation Method 1
when one of such materials is compressed in one direction, it expands in the other two directions perpendicular to the compression direction, according to the well known Poisson effect and according to the Poisson coefficient of the material itself
Implementation Method 2
through openings (4) suitable for the circulation of air from one side to the other, so as to allow the optimal transpiration and thermal regulation of the parts of body of the user positioned resting on the support element itself
Data Source
AI summary
A support element, for example a plate, a mattress, a pillow, a seating plane of a chair, of an armchair, a saddle for vehicles and the like, equipped with a resting surface for a user, includes at least one first layer in gel associated with at least one second layer of different material; such a first layer in gel and such a second layer, that are associated, are crossed by through openings that are suitable for the proper circulation of air from one side to the other of the support element, so as to allow the optimal transpiration and thermal regulation of the parts of the body of the user positioned resting on the support element itself.