Trailer Slider Locking Pin Offset Centerline Design
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Solution Overview
Problem
Trailer slider locking systems often fail to ensure full engagement of pins with body rails, leading to potential collisions during vehicle operation due to pins not being fully locked, especially under braking conditions.
Innovation Solution
The trailer slider locking system features pins with offset centerlines and tapered ends, allowing for better engagement even when misaligned, and includes apertures to facilitate linkage movement if one pin is blocked, ensuring that at least one pin remains locked to prevent relative movement between the trailer body and suspension frame.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If pins are used with centerlines aligned with hole centerlines, then precise alignment is required for proper engagement, but this reduces adaptability to misalignment conditions
Solution Approach 1:
The pin is designed with an asymmetric geometry where the pin centerline is deliberately offset from the hole centerline. The pin features a tapered end that is smaller in diameter than the hole, allowing the pin to be inserted even when misaligned. The asymmetric design includes a larger diameter portion that engages the hole walls to provide locking force, while the smaller tapered end facilitates insertion tolerance.
2Adaptability or versatility
If pins are made smaller than holes to allow misalignment, then adaptability to misalignment improves, but pin engagement reliability may worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The pin exhibits local quality variations along its length, with different diameters at different locations. The tapered end has a smaller diameter to facilitate insertion and accommodate misalignment, while the main body has a larger diameter that engages the hole walls to provide sufficient locking force and reliability. This localized differentiation of properties allows the pin to simultaneously accommodate misalignment and maintain engagement reliability.
3Reliability
If all pins must be fully locked to prevent relative movement, then safety is improved, but device complexity increases due to interdependence of pin movements
Solution Approach 1:
The system is designed so that not all pins need to be fully locked to achieve the safety function. The aperture in each pin allows the linkage to bypass pins that are blocked by debris or misalignment, enabling the other pins to continue moving to their locked positions. This partial action approach ensures that as long as at least one pin is properly locked, the safety function is achieved, reducing the complexity requirements of the linkage system.
Data Source
AI summary
A trailer slider locking system includes body rails longitudinally slidable relative to a suspension frame side rail. The body rails have holes providing multiple suspension positions. A pin locking system includes a pin moveable between retracted and locked positions. An end of the pin is received in one of the holes in the locked position. The pin has a first centerline and the holes have a second centerline. The end of the pin extends through the hole with the centerlines being offset from one another in the locked position. The pins have tapered ends so that the pin will extend through the body rail hole prior to advancing to the fully locked position.