Vehicle Wiper Blade Coupling Mechanism for Secure Attachment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional vehicle wiper designs face issues with unexpected separation of the wiper blade from the wiper arm due to low coupling force, and reducing the wiper blade's height leads to deformation of the attachment-separation port, causing the support shaft to fall out.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle wiper design featuring a wiper arm and wiper blade with coaxial support shafts and recesses, where the support shafts have a small diameter portion at a predetermined angular position, and the attachment-separation port is designed to prevent opening, allowing for secure coupling and easy attachment/separation by pivoting the wiper blade between attachable-separable and non-attachable regions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If the wiper blade is reduced in height, then the size of the wiper blade is reduced, but the attachment-separation port deforms and opens, causing the support shaft to fall out
Solution Approach 1:
The coupling structure is divided into multiple functional elements: the support shaft with small diameter portion, the attachment-separation port with specific dimensional relationships, and the shape sustaining portion. This segmentation allows each element to perform its specific function - the small diameter portion enables attachment/separation, the port dimensions control access, and the shape sustaining portion prevents deformation - while working together to solve the contradiction between size reduction and coupling reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The support shaft is designed with non-uniform geometry, featuring a small diameter portion at a predetermined angular position while maintaining a larger diameter in other regions. This local variation in geometry allows the shaft to be selectively accessible through the attachment-separation port only at specific angular positions, enabling controlled attachment and separation while maintaining structural integrity elsewhere.
2Ease of operation
If the coupling force between support shaft and coupling hole is reduced, then attachment and separation is facilitated, but unexpected separation of coupled components occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The coupling mechanism transitions from a static interference fit to a dynamic, position-dependent coupling. The support shaft can be attached and separated by pivoting the wiper blade to specific angular positions where the small diameter portion aligns with the attachment-separation port. During normal operation at the wiper usage position, the coupling is locked in place, providing stability while allowing easy attachment and separation when needed.
Data Source
AI summary
A wiper for a vehicle is provided with: an arm-side connection section; a blade-side connection section; support shafts which protrude from side walls of the blade-side connection section; and shaft support recesses which are provided in the arm-side connection section. When a wiper blade is located in a mounting-dismounting enabled region, the mounting-dismounting openings and the small-diameter sections of the support shafts match with each other, and the support shafts and the shaft support recesses can be mounted to and dismounted from each other. When the wiper blade is located in a mounting-dismounting disabled region, the mounting-dismounting openings and the small-diameter sections do not match with each other, and the support shafts and the shaft support recesses cannot be mounted to and dismounted from each other. A shape retaining section is located between the pair of the shaft support recesses.