Telescoping Frame with Nested Locking for Protective Containers
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing collapsible storage and transport containers face challenges in providing adequate protection while maintaining a lightweight design, as they often require heavy materials for robustness, leading to inefficiencies in storage and transport, and reconfigurable designs may compromise protection or usability when collapsed.
Innovation Solution
A collapsible container-support frame with telescoping members and cross members that nest and lock using detents, allowing for adjustable volume configurations and integration with surfaces like fabric to enhance protection and efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If a container is constructed of heavy materials like wood or metal to provide robust protection, then the protection for items is improved, but the container becomes too heavy for convenient storage and transport
Solution Approach 1:
The support frame is divided into multiple telescoping sections that can be separated and reconfigured. Each section provides localized structural support while allowing the overall frame to be disassembled into smaller, lighter components for transport and storage.
Solution Approach 2:
The telescoping members are nested within each other, with inner members sliding inside outer members. This nesting arrangement allows the frame to collapse to a fraction of its extended volume while maintaining structural integrity when assembled, solving both the protection and storage space problems.
2Weight of moving object
If a container is constructed of light-weight or flexible materials like cardboard, plastic, or fabric, then the container is lighter and easier to transport, but the protection for items becomes inadequate
Solution Approach 1:
The container combines a rigid telescoping support frame (made of metal or rigid plastic) with a flexible fabric enclosure. This composite structure provides the strength and rigidity needed for protection from the frame while maintaining light weight and flexibility from the fabric material.
3Volume of moving object
If a container is made reconfigurable to occupy less volume when not in use through folding, dismantling, or collapsing, then storage space efficiency is improved, but the protection capability or usability when collapsed is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The support frame transitions from a static rigid structure to a dynamic telescoping structure that can adjust its volume. The telescoping members can slide in and out to expand or collapse the frame, providing both compact storage capability and full structural support when extended and locked in position.
4Strength
If a hard-sided container is used to provide robust protection, then the protection capability is improved, but the container does not collapse and requires excess space for storage when not in use
Solution Approach 1:
The hard-sided telescoping members are nested within each other, allowing the rigid structure to collapse to a fraction of its extended volume. Each telescoping member maintains its rigidity and protective capability when assembled, but the nested arrangement enables compact storage when collapsed.
5Volume of moving object
If a soft-sided enclosure is collapsed into a rigid base, then the container occupies less space, but the protection provided to items is reduced and the container is useless as a container when collapsed
Solution Approach 1:
The telescoping support frame provides dynamic structural support that can be extended to full volume for protection or collapsed to minimal volume for storage. Unlike a static rigid base, the telescoping members can adapt their configuration, providing full protective capability when extended and locked, while enabling compact storage when collapsed.
Data Source
AI summary
A configurable container-support frame is disclosed. The frame includes at least two sections, each section including at least three substantially parallel telescoping members, each connected to two other members by a cross member that is substantially perpendicular to the telescoping members. The telescoping members of one section telescopically engage with the telescoping members of at least one other section and the engaged sections define a configurable volume. The frame may be disposed within an existing container, such as a bag or a box, to improve the protective capabilities of that container. Or the frame may be integrated with a surface, such as a fabric, to create a configurable container with improved protective capabilities over the surface alone.