Telescoping Spray Mop Shaft Assembly with Nested Rod Retention
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing spray mop designs face challenges in maintaining the actuating rod segments within the outer shaft segments during shipping and assembly, leading to increased complexity and cost when attempting to prevent separation, especially when the shaft assembly is disassembled for shipping.
Innovation Solution
The design incorporates a telescoping actuating rod with radially extending retaining elements and shaft retaining elements that interfere to limit movement, ensuring the rod segments remain within the shaft segments, allowing for a disassembled state without additional components, thus reducing costs and complexity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of stationary object
If the actuable shaft assembly is disassembled for shipping, then the shipping volume and cost are reduced, but the interior actuating rod segments may become separated from the outer shaft segments
Solution Approach 1:
The actuating rod segments are nested within the outer shaft segments, with each rod segment fitting inside its corresponding shaft segment. This nesting arrangement allows the components to be disassembled for compact shipping while maintaining their intended assembly relationship, reducing shipping volume while preserving assembly integrity through the nested configuration.
Solution Approach 2:
The rod segments are pre-positioned within the shaft segments during manufacturing, creating a predetermined assembly state. This preliminary positioning ensures that when the product is shipped disassembled, the components can be easily reassembled in the correct configuration, maintaining reliability while enabling volume reduction for shipping.
2Reliability
If additional components are added to prevent separation of rod segments from shaft segments, then the assembly integrity is maintained, but the device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The nested configuration of rod segments within shaft segments creates a self-retaining system where the geometry of the components themselves prevents separation. The rod segments fit within the hollow interior of the shaft segments, using the structural design rather than additional fastening components to maintain assembly integrity, thereby reducing device complexity and component count.
Solution Approach 2:
The retaining function is merged into the basic structural design of the shaft and rod segments. Rather than adding separate retaining components, the hollow shaft segments and corresponding rod segments are designed to work together as an integrated assembly, combining the structural and retention functions into the primary components themselves.
Data Source
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AI summary
An actuable shaft assembly for a spray mop assembly includes first and second hollow elongated outer shaft segments in which first and second elongated actuating rod segments are telescopingly disposed, respectively. The first and second outer shaft segments include respective first and second shaft retaining elements extending into their hollow interiors. The first and second rod segments include respective first and second rod retaining elements extending radially outward from their outer peripheral surfaces. The rod retaining elements and shaft retaining elements are sized and disposed to limit telescoping movement of the associated rod segments outward from the shaft segment ends.