Vibration Damping Seal for Immersion Bath Apparatus
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current body treatment apparatuses, such as bathtubs, fail to provide a safe and effective combination of vibration and immersion in fluids for user safety and home installation.
Innovation Solution
A bathtub design featuring a vessel for liquid immersion with a movement mechanism causing vibrations, an external casing with a fluid-tight seal to reduce vibration transmission, and a shape-memory seal for secure assembly and disassembly, ensuring user safety and efficient vibration damping.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the vessel is mechanically coupled to cause vibrations for body treatment, then the treatment effectiveness is improved, but vibrations are transmitted to the external casing causing safety and stability issues
Solution Approach 1:
A fluid-tight seal is introduced as an intermediary element between the vessel and external casing. This seal acts as a vibration-damping barrier that reduces the transmission of vibrations from the vessel to the casing, thereby eliminating the harmful vibrations transmitted to the casing while maintaining the beneficial vibration treatment effects on the user's body.
2Reliability
If a fluid-tight seal is introduced between vessel and casing, then user safety is improved, but the complexity of assembly and disassembly increases
Solution Approach 1:
The seal is designed with shape-memory properties that allow it to change its physical parameters (shape, rigidity) in response to temperature or other environmental conditions. This enables the seal to be easily inserted and sealed at one temperature condition, then locked into place, while allowing for easy removal when conditions change, thus maintaining both safety and ease of maintenance.
3Manufacturing precision
If the vessel and external casing are rigidly connected for structural stability, then manufacturing precision is improved, but vibration damping capability decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The seal is constructed from composite materials that combine fluid-tight sealing properties with vibration-damping characteristics. This composite structure maintains the structural stability and manufacturing precision of the rigid connection between vessel and casing, while simultaneously providing the necessary vibration damping to reduce harmful vibrations transmitted to the casing.
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 solution provides improved safety and performance by minimizing vibration transmission to the external casing, ensuring a secure and efficient fluid-tight seal, and allowing for easy maintenance, making the apparatus suitable for home use and other treatment environments.
Implementation Method 1
a fluid-tight seal interposed between the first rim and the second rim and such to reduce the transmission of vibrations from the vessel to the casing
Implementation Method 2
an external casing, provided with a second rim covering the first rim; a fluid-tight seal interposed between the first rim and the second rim
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus is disclosed for treating a user by means of vibrations, comprising: a vessel for accommodating a liquid for immersing the user, provided with a first rim; a motor provided with a cam mechanically coupled to the vessel to cause vibrations of the vessel. The apparatus is characterized in that it further comprises an external casing of the vessel, provided with a second rim covering the first rim, and a fluid-tight seal interposes between the first rim and the second rim and such to reduce the transmission of vibrations from the vessel to the casing.