V-Shaped Channel Disc for Line Deployment Tangling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing water rescue devices face issues with line deployment accuracy and reliability due to tangling, asymmetric design leading to wobbling and diving during flight, and the need for precise throwing orientation.
Innovation Solution
A throwable disc with a V-shaped circumferential channel that converges radially inward, ensuring the line is wound symmetrically around the central plane, reducing tangling and enhancing stability and accuracy during deployment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a constant-width circumferential channel is used to retain the retrieval line, then the line can be wound side-by-side, but the line becomes tangled during deployment reducing reliability and accuracy
Solution Approach 1:
The channel width varies radially from the edge toward the center of the disc, creating different local conditions for line winding. The wider section at the edge allows easy winding, while the narrower section toward the center prevents overlapping and tangling during deployment, resolving the reliability issue without requiring complex external mechanisms
2Ease of operation
If the circumferential channel is displaced away from the mid-plane of the disc, then the line retention is simplified, but the disc wobbles during flight and may dive during retrieval
Solution Approach 1:
The channel is deliberately asymmetric in its radial width profile, being wider at the edge and narrower toward the center. This asymmetric geometry simultaneously achieves easy line winding at the wider section and prevents wobble and diving during flight by creating balanced aerodynamic properties, resolving both ease of operation and stability requirements
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus for deploying a line includes a disc having a generally V-shaped circumferential channel for retaining the line prior to deployment. The V-shaped channel guides a first wound turn of the line toward the central plane of the disc, and provides an enlarged space into which the turns of the line are unwound during deployment. The enlarged space prevents tangling of the line when the turns are unwound from the disc during deployment.