Tray-Mounted Lateral Guide with Dynamic Positioning for Cargo Restraint
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cargo systems for aircraft fail to effectively restrain cargo movement within the cargo bay during flight, while allowing ease of movement during loading and unloading.
Innovation Solution
A cargo system featuring a tray-mounted lateral guide with a roller slot, a lifter mechanism to adjust the guide's position, and a restraint that can be manually or automatically actuated to resist cargo movement, ensuring the guide can be in a lowered or raised position to facilitate or hinder cargo movement.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the roller is positioned to facilitate cargo movement during loading and unloading, then ease of operation is improved, but cargo restraint capability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The guide is designed to be movable between a lowered position (facilitating cargo movement during loading/unloading) and a raised position (restraining cargo during flight). The lifter mechanism enables dynamic repositioning of the guide between these two states, allowing the system to adapt to different operational requirements.
2Productivity
If the guide is in the lowered position to facilitate cargo conveyance, then productivity is improved, but cargo stability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the guide position based on operational phase: lowered during loading/unloading for high productivity, and raised during flight for high stability. The lifter mechanism enables this dynamic transition between the two positional states.
3Stability of the object's composition
If the guide is in the raised position to restrain cargo, then cargo stability is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The guide transitions between raised and lowered positions using the lifter mechanism, allowing the system to provide cargo stability when raised during flight and ease of movement when lowered during loading/unloading operations.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables smooth cargo conveyance during loading and unloading while securely restraining cargo during flight, reducing the risk of movement and ensuring safety and stability within the aircraft cargo bay.
Implementation Method 1
a spring coupled to the lifter and configured to cause the lifter to actuate the main body into the raised position in response to the latch being released from the first notch
Implementation Method 2
the lifter defines a cam coupled to the pin and configured to actuate the pin relative to the pin slot such that movement of the pin relative to the pin slot actuates the restraint from the unrestrained position to the restrained position
Data Source
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AI summary
A tray mounted lateral guide (304) for use between trays of a cargo bay having a bay floor includes a main body (306) defining a roller slot. The tray mounted lateral guide further includes a roller (324) configured to be at least partially positioned in the roller slot and to facilitate conveyance of a pallet through the cargo bay. The tray mounted lateral guide further includes a lifter (400) coupled to the main body (306) and configured to be coupled to a tray and to maintain the main body (306) in at least one of a lowered position or a raised position, the main body (306) being further from the bay floor when in the raised position than when in the lowered position.