China-made tiny-packed hang gliders has not yet started. Maybe Thailand will fill the forecasted gap for tiny-packed hang gliders; but Vietnam might thrust a competitive interest in the matter. Made-in-USA tiny-packed hang gliders also has not yet launched. World competition for interesting tiny-packed hang gliders may grow at a pace surprising even the most astute market watchers.
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Introducing the "Joe Cup"
- JoeCup001ofApril30of2023.jpg (15.29 KiB) Viewed 1040 times
Gap filler, stop-insertion-limiting Joe Cup bushing ....l
The sketch's red represents a washer or ring that avoids wedging into the gap between two telescoping tubes.
The black line represents a sock or sleeve forming a double-wall that in use becomes highly tensed as the macro spar of telescoping tube segments goes into axial compression. The red ring is inside the double-walled sock and may be secured in place by some hand sewing pinching the ring into firm position.
The green is a loose ring or disk that is edged radiused on its lower end that faces the sock; the radius will soften the wearing that may occur at the interface of the loose disk and the lower part of the sock; the inner-going telescopic tube segment of a spar will have its insertion end meet the loose ring or disk and press very hard against that disk or ring as axial compression occurs in the macro spar.
The use of the sleeving Joe Cup is to remain so that a tiny looseness remains so that disassembly of tube segments remains possible without binding. The Joe Cup's sleeving might be Teflonized to aid in such assembly-disassembly effort. The Joe Cup limits the amount of insertion that occurs for the smaller spar-tube-segment.
When using the Joe Cup, note that there need be no holes in the side of the tube segments, no shear pinning, no tube clamps, etc. Joe Cups my have thin or thicker walling to accommodate the sizes of the tube segments being joined in the telescopic macro spar. Note that the sock-like construction of some Joe Cups allow for a very efficient toted packing for the Joe Cups, as they simply collapse into a flattish disk-like form; the Joe Cups may be packed in unused cavities of a pack or even "worm" as part ot the trekking pilot's clothes, as in pockets. If the ring is a bit flexible, then deformation may allow stuffing Joe Cups into the interior of toted tube segments.
Joe-Cup sock material may vary. Perhaps the sock that invaginates and closes may be made of Dyneema fabric. Other materials may be considered. One would want the flight loadings not to stretch the sock very much in order to keep HG specifications as desired. However, a bit of stretch might be useful in handling excessive tension caused from excessive compression in the spar when gusts or other overload events occur.
Note that a Joe Cup could also be like the following: a deep cupping stainless-steel lipped cup. The lip stands for the red in the sketch. The bottom of the stainless-steel cup represents the loose green disk. But such a stainless-steel cup may not tiny-pack as easily as other Joe-Cup designs.
Note: a Joe Cup need not be a full round cup but might be a ribbon-like depth limiting device where only say 30% of the circumference of the spar-tube end circle is faced. This might be explored but may not be as stree-spreading as full Joe Cup designs.
The final mass used in a Joe Cup may vary by choice of involved materials. One might explore any COTS lipped cups, even glass test tubes or beakers, etc. in search of a ready cup for use in a Joe-Cup situation for assembling tube segments to make a HG spar with intent of tiny-packing the spar. Taper or a hard cup is not wanted as the insertive spar segment won't be tapered, most likely. One might explore mods of COTS bottles, but watch out for shearing of the bottom of the device during loading. The upper lip of a Joe Cup prevents the cup from moving out of position; the lower lip inside or the lower full floor of the cup prevents the inside telescoping tube segment from entering further than wanted. Aluminum lipped cups of constant diameters may work, but tests should be run regarding fatigue and shearing.
Lips or flanges to cups are of interest; some shearing forces will occur in the HG use in axial compressed assembled spars.
Some COTS cup/beakers critiqued: Cole-Parmer® Essentials Griffin Low-Form Stainless Steel Beakers with Easy-Pour Rim is expensive; and the inclined lip would tend to wedge and break the spar's outside telescoping tube. So, such product would not be chosen by me. If given freely and if size satisfies one use, then the lip might be flattened to 90-degrees to stop the wedging. Further, such mod would be a rigid Joe Cup and have tiny-packing challenges.
Lipped glass test tubes may not come in sizes wanted. But if exact fit seems nice, then such might work in some instances of smaller-diameter spars. But glass has its challenges!
Avoiding a Joe Cup made from bonding pieces may not satisfy, as bonds may break. Labor may be high.
Custom machined Joe Cups can get very expensive; the two lips and the precision diameters can run up prices to very high levels.
Thermo-forming lips/flanges on a given thermoplastic pipe or tube might suffice in some HG telescopic-spar uses, but test should be run to prove or disprove integrity for safety. One would want to avoid wedging and shearing for assembled axially compression spar.
Flanged aluminum tube bushing having not a bottom in-going flange would need to be modified to get a bottom in-going flange to form a Joe Cup; or a bonding or welding of a bottom for the the COTS flanged bushing. Depth of a COTS part may not be available. Wall thickness of a COTS part might be too thick.
Inner and outer flanging of polycarbonate sheet or tube might be explored for Joe Cupping ends. Test for wedging and shearing unwanteds.
Using spinning to form top out-going lips and bottom in-going lips on a given aluminum or steel thin-walled pipe might be a source of rigid Joe Cups; however, such rigid cups may not pack as well as non-rigid cups as described above.
Le Minimum Joe Cup might be a loop of webbing grabbing two small segment of sticks, each placed in the turn of the flattened webbing. Hand stitch the central part of webbing. Let the webbing dip in the outside larger spar-tube segment keeping the two grabbed stick parts outside while the inner telescoping spar-tube segment fits into the outer tube pressing the webbing down into a Joe-Cupping position-limiting arrangement. This must be tested for wedging and shearing and wobble as gap-fill is not surround. |==================| sketches the device. End sticks and ==== webbing. Use a closed loop of webbing. Two of these could be used at one station of assemblage. +
Start with flat material. Flange two opposite sides, one flange up, the other down. Roll the flanged flat material to form a split-sided sleeve. Call this a split-sided Joe Cup. The roll stays split for keen adjustment into the gap between two telescoping tube segments. Judicious sizing of the flat material will suffice to fit a given join of two telescopic spar segments. The cross section view of the flanged piece is near a Z with a long vertical part of the Z. The two flanges fulfill the needs of limiting the insertion of smaller telescopic tube in an axially-compressed macro HG spar made of several telescopic tube segments. This must be tested for wedge-slipping of upper flange and opening of lower flange during axial compression of the macro spar. If wedging or loss of flange protection occurs, then the part fails. Test for endurance and fatigue failure. Choice of materials will be key on this approach. DIY from flat allows customizing to needs of gap-fill and diameter matching.
Post-Singularity (AI) design of a Joe Cup for tiny-packed hang gliders might be better than what has been covered so far.
- DoubleTaperedTelescopicSpar.jpg (7.33 KiB) Viewed 1038 times
Motivation resulting in Joe Cup comes from wanting to avoid clamps, holes in tube segments, shear-pins, shear-pin holes, cam-expanding devices, threads, and more.