Vertical Position Sensor With Latching Bearing And Composite Materials
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing sensor technologies face challenges in achieving cost-effectiveness, robustness, compactness, and precise measurement while maintaining reliable operation and minimizing electrical coupling.
Innovation Solution
A sensor design featuring a lever unit mounted in a rotationally deflectable manner within a base unit, incorporating a shaft with an encoder and a magnetic field sensor element, along with locking means and a snap ring for secure mounting and reduced friction.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a sensor uses a bearing with locking means and snap ring for secure mounting, then reliability and robustness are improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The locking means are formed integrally with the bearing as a single piece, combining the bearing function with the locking function. The bearing housing includes circumferential locking projections that directly engage with grooves on the shaft, eliminating the need for separate locking components and reducing assembly steps while maintaining secure mounting.
Solution Approach 2:
The bearing structure includes self-aligning features where the locking projections and grooves automatically engage during assembly. The snap ring design allows automatic retention of the shaft bearing section without requiring additional fastening operations, enabling the component to self-secure during installation.
2Ease of manufacture
If the lever unit and bearing are made from fiber-reinforced plastic, then manufacturing cost and ease of production are improved, but manufacturing precision may be affected
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs fiber-reinforced plastic materials (carbon fiber or glass fiber reinforced) for both the lever unit and bearing housing. These composite materials provide high strength-to-weight ratios and excellent dimensional stability, enabling precise injection molding while maintaining mechanical performance. The fiber reinforcement compensates for potential shrinkage and deformation during cooling, preserving manufacturing precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The design utilizes the specific material properties of fiber-reinforced plastics, including their anisotropic shrinkage characteristics and cooling behavior, to optimize the injection molding process parameters. By adjusting mold temperature, injection pressure, and cooling time based on the fiber orientation and material composition, the patent achieves consistent dimensional accuracy despite the complexity of molding composite materials.
3Reliability
If carbon fiber-reinforced and glass fiber-reinforced plastics are used, then surface friction is reduced and lubricants are eliminated, but material selection complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs homogeneous material pairing where both the lever unit and bearing housing are made from the same type of fiber-reinforced plastic (either both carbon fiber or both glass fiber). This material homogeneity ensures compatible friction and wear characteristics, eliminates galvanic corrosion risks, and simplifies the supply chain by using a single material system throughout the friction interface.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical lubrication systems with inherent material properties. The fiber-reinforced plastic materials provide self-lubricating characteristics through their molecular structure and surface properties, eliminating the need for external lubricants, grease channels, or lubrication maintenance systems. This substitution reduces complexity by removing the lubrication subsystem entirely.
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
The sensor achieves cost-effectiveness, robustness, and compactness while providing precise angle measurements, and by using carbon fiber-reinforced and glass fiber-reinforced plastics, it reduces surface friction and eliminates the need for additional lubricants.
Implementation Method 1
a sensor element which detects the encoder or the magnetic field generated and/or modulated by the encoder
Implementation Method 2
by using carbon fiber-reinforced and glass fiber-reinforced plastics, it reduces surface friction and eliminates the need for additional lubricants
Data Source
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AI summary
Sensor which has a lever unit (1) which is rotationally deflectably mounted in a bearing (21) of a base unit (2), wherein the lever unit (1) has a shaft (11), which is mounted in the bearing (21) by way of its shaft bearing portion (13), and a lever (12) connected to this shaft (11), wherein the shaft (11) has an encoder (14) and wherein the base unit (2) has at least one sensor element (22) which detects the encoder (14), wherein the bearing (21) of the base unit has a plurality of latching means (23), in particular latching hooks and/or latching projections, which are arranged all the way around the inner jacket of the bearing (21) and are formed in one-piece with the bearing and wherein these latching means (23) directly or indirectly hold and/or guide the shaft bearing portion (13).