Therapy Furniture Armrest With Decoupled Toothed Adjustment Mechanism
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing armrests for therapy furniture face challenges in absorbing high forces and providing adequate support due to unbalanced patient movement, requiring significant manufacturing and material effort to achieve rigidity, while also needing cost-effective and reliable adjustment functions.
Innovation Solution
The armrest features a robust adjustment mechanism with a sliding element actuated by a lever, engaging toothed elements for blocking inclination and rotation adjustments, allowing for decoupled functional units that can withstand large forces and be manufactured inexpensively, with a compact design and sealing to protect against environmental influences.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If conventional armrest designs are used to achieve required rigidity and force absorption, then sufficient structural strength is obtained, but manufacturing and assembly effort as well as material usage increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The adjustment device is divided into separate functional units: a first toothed assembly for inclination adjustment and a second toothed assembly for rotation adjustment. This segmentation allows each unit to be optimized independently for its specific function, reducing overall complexity while maintaining the required force absorption capability through specialized gear designs.
Solution Approach 2:
The armrest design incorporates dynamic adjustment capabilities through the toothed assemblies that allow controlled movement between locked and adjusted positions. The sliding element can engage or disengage from the toothed elements, providing dynamic control over the armrest's inclination and rotation to adapt to different patient needs while maintaining structural integrity.
2Reliability
If robust adjustment mechanisms are implemented to withstand large forces, then functional reliability is improved, but component and material expenditure increases
Solution Approach 1:
By separating the inclination and rotation adjustment functions into distinct toothed assemblies, each component can be sized and material-selected appropriately for its specific load requirements, avoiding the need to over-engineer all components for maximum load conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The toothed assemblies use standardized gear tooth geometries and modular component designs that can be manufactured using conventional machining processes, reducing material waste and manufacturing costs while maintaining reliable force transmission capability.
3Productivity
If decoupled toothed assemblies are used for inclination and rotation blocking, then assembly work is reduced, but the mechanism complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The decoupling of inclination and rotation adjustment into separate toothed assemblies with independent sliding elements allows each assembly to be pre-assembled and tested separately, then integrated into the final armrest structure, significantly reducing overall assembly complexity and time.
Solution Approach 2:
Both toothed assemblies use similar design principles and component types (toothed elements, sliding elements, actuating levers), creating a universal adjustment mechanism that simplifies manufacturing processes and assembly procedures across different adjustment functions.
Data Source
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AI summary
An armrest for attachment to therapy furniture for puncturing and/or supplying access points in the arm area is presented, comprising an armrest support arranged on an armrest housing, wherein the armrest housing has a bracket for fixing to the couch or chair frame and an adjustment device for adjusting the horizontal tilt and rotation about a vertical axis of the armrest support is received in the armrest housing, wherein, according to the invention, the adjustment device has a pin element that can be moved in the direction of the vertical axis by means of an actuating lever, which, by its movement, decouples mutually engaging toothed elements of a toothed assembly for blocking the tilt adjustment and mutually engaging toothed elements of a toothed assembly for blocking the rotation of the armrest support.