Worm Gear Strut Pipe Clamp for Fast, Secure Tube Mounting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing strut pipe clamps are cumbersome and costly, with multiple components that can be easily lost or misaligned, leading to inefficiencies in installation and increased labor costs, and often require breaking or bending, which can cause damage and safety issues.
Innovation Solution
A one-piece worm gear strut clamp design with bands, strut attachment legs, and a screw housing that securely fastens conduits, pipes, or tubes to a strut using a worm gear fastener, allowing for easy alignment and secure attachment without the need for multiple parts, reducing labor costs and ensuring proper torque-tension relationships.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple-component clamp designs are used, then the clamp can provide secure attachment, but the device complexity increases and installation labor costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple separate clamp components (clamp body, fastening mechanism, and attachment elements) into a single integrated one-piece structure. This merging eliminates the need for multiple discrete parts while maintaining the secure attachment function, directly resolving the contradiction between reliability and device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The one-piece clamp design incorporates multiple functions within a single component: the clamp body provides structural support, the integrated fastening mechanism provides secure attachment, and the molded-in attachment elements provide mounting capability. This multi-functionality eliminates the need for separate components, reducing complexity while maintaining reliability.
2Reliability
If multiple-component clamp designs are used, then the clamp can provide secure attachment, but the ease of operation decreases due to alignment requirements and potential for losing parts
Solution Approach 1:
By merging all clamp components into a single pre-assembled unit, the patent eliminates the operational challenges of handling multiple separate parts. Installers no longer need to align multiple components or risk losing small parts, significantly improving ease of operation while maintaining secure attachment through the integrated design.
Solution Approach 2:
The clamp components are pre-assembled and pre-aligned during manufacturing to form a complete one-piece unit. This preliminary action eliminates the need for field alignment and assembly operations, making installation simpler and more efficient while ensuring the secure attachment characteristics are already optimized.
3Reliability
If traditional clamp installation methods are used, then the clamp can be installed, but the loss of time increases due to alignment and assembly requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The integration of all clamp components into a single pre-assembled unit eliminates the time-consuming steps of aligning and assembling multiple parts during installation. The one-piece design allows for rapid installation while maintaining secure attachment, directly reducing installation time without compromising reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
All alignment and assembly operations are performed in advance during manufacturing to create the one-piece clamp unit. This preliminary action transfers the time investment to the manufacturing stage, enabling extremely quick installation in the field while ensuring secure attachment characteristics are already optimized.
4Device complexity
If breakaway clamp designs are used, then the part count is reduced, but the manufacturing precision requirements increase and safety issues arise from breaking or bending
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges all clamp components into a single one-piece molded structure, eliminating the need for breakaway features or separate components. This integration maintains low part count while removing the safety hazards and manufacturing complexity associated with breakaway designs, as the unified structure requires no intentional weak points.
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 clamp design significantly reduces installation labor costs by up to 60% and provides a cost-effective solution with a tidy appearance, accommodating various pipe sizes and resisting loosening in high-vibration applications, while being reusable and safer than previous designs.
Implementation Method 1
A one-piece worm gear strut clamp design with bands, strut attachment legs, and a screw housing that securely fastens conduits, pipes, or tubes to a strut using a worm gear fastener
Implementation Method 2
The screw is rotated to draw the band further into the screw housing and thereby tighten the clamp around the tube
Implementation Method 3
resisting loosening in high-vibration applications
Data Source
AI summary
A clamp includes first and second bands, a pair of strut attachment legs, a screw, and a screw housing. Each band has a first end and a second end. The first band defines slots extending across a width thereof and disposed adjacent to the second end thereof. Each strut attachment leg is fixed to the first end of one of the bands. The screw housing receives the second ends of the bands and captures the screw while allowing the screw to rotate. The clamp secures a tube to a strut when the clamp is placed over the tube, the strut attachment legs are positioned relative to the strut so that notches in the strut attachment legs receive at least one of the flanges on the strut, and the screw is rotated to draw the first band further into the screw housing and thereby tighten the clamp around the tube.