Trailer Sway Damper Mounting Device for Ball Neck
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing anti-roll devices for vehicle trailers face challenges in reliably and permanently fixing to the ball neck, leading to instability and potential detachment during use.
Innovation Solution
The anti-roll device features a mounting system with holding bodies and receptacles that engage in a form-fitting manner, ensuring the device base is securely fixed to the ball neck, preventing rotation and lifting, and allowing for easy transition between assembly and disassembly positions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a mounting device is used to fix the device base to the ball neck, then the connection stability is improved, but the device complexity increases due to the need for holding bodies, receptacles, and positioning elements
Solution Approach 1:
The mounting device is segmented into distinct functional components: holding bodies that engage the ball neck, receptacles that receive positioning elements, and positioning elements themselves. This segmentation allows each component to perform its specific function efficiently while enabling modular manufacturing and assembly, thus improving connection stability without making the overall device unmanageably complex
Solution Approach 2:
The positioning elements are nested within the receptacles of the holding bodies, creating a compact integrated structure. The positioning elements fit into recesses in the holding bodies, and the entire mounting device nests around the ball neck, providing a space-efficient solution that achieves reliable fixation without excessive structural complexity
2Reliability
If the holding receptacles grip the positioning bodies to prevent movement, then the fixation reliability is improved, but the ease of operation deteriorates due to difficulty in assembly and disassembly
Solution Approach 1:
The mounting device incorporates dynamic elements that allow it to transition between a locked state (during normal operation) and an unlocked state (during assembly/disassembly). The holding bodies can move relative to the device base, enabling the positioning elements to be inserted into or removed from the receptacles. This dynamic capability maintains reliable fixation during use while enabling easy operation during installation and removal
Solution Approach 2:
The positioning elements are pre-configured with specific shapes and dimensions that match corresponding receptacles. The holding bodies are pre-positioned to engage the ball neck in a predetermined orientation. This preliminary configuration ensures that when assembly begins, the components naturally guide themselves into the correct positions, reducing the skill and effort required for proper installation while maintaining reliable fixation
Data Source
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AI summary
To improve a sway damping device for vehicle trailers that can be attached to a trailer coupling having a ball neck and a coupling ball, comprising a trailer-side device base, coupling-fixed joint units held on both sides of the longitudinal center plane on the trailer-side device base, which connect damper units arranged on both sides of the longitudinal center plane and extending away from the trailer-side device base in the opposite direction to a forward direction of travel, to the trailer-side device base, which in turn is connected to a drawbar of the vehicle trailer via a trailer-side device base, in such a way that the trailer-side device base can be optimally connected to the ball neck, it is proposed that the trailer-side device base be provided with a mounting device, the mounting device being designed such thatthat in a mounting position it is able to fix the ball neck in such a positive-locking manner by interacting with at least one positioning element of the same, such that the device base is held immovably on the ball neck in a direction transverse to the central axis of the coupling ball and the ball attachment.