The Mini-Snow Plow plow is designed to fit on almost any wheeled motor vehicle, regardless of it being a passenger car, full sized truck, or emergency vehicle.
The idea is to plow the road for traction as you drive, but only where your tires are going to follow. There is a small channel for snow, and other debris, in front of each front wheel. It isn't going to plow your driveway or sidewalk, but it is going to give you the traction when and where you need it. This means that it also turns with your steering, so when you go around a curve or corner, you maintain grip on the road to prevent sliding or getting stuck.
There's a second part of this innovation that includes a resevoir in each fender for sand, salt, or other material to be spread between the plow and your tires to further increase traction even when ice or other slick surface aren't removed by the plows.
This innovation works by channeling snow, for instance, away from the path of the tire so that most loose material that can reduce traction is removed. Then a light covering of drying agent or traction improving material, such as salt and sand, is spread to further prevent traction from being lost while driving in less than perfect conditions.
One of the benefits of this innovation is that you can get to work safer, when you need to get there before the large snow plows have cleared the roads. You can do this without the expense of a large truck, a large plow, or significant damage to your vehicle and this will increase your fuel mileage less than a large snow plow. Also, the snow plows designed for large personal vehicles aren't designed to assist you in driving to work, they are designed to move tons of snow as work.
Another benefit for the Mini-Snow Plow is that it can be attached to emergency vehicles so they can more easily access areas that they would otherwise have to wait for specialized equipment to clear a path. This innovation isn't just for snow, either. It can be used in almost any condition where there is debris on the roadway, or even off-road, which prevents vehicles from easily driving through it.
The market for this innovation includes any geographical location that sees any incliment weather or natural disaster, indlucing mud slides, snow, and large ash deposits from volcanos or forest fires. In my research, I found that nearly 100% of the United States, with it's +300 millions vehicles, could benefit from the Mini-Snow Plow.
The Mini-Snow Plow could be manufactured by almost any of the present plow manufacturers, using their tools and techniques. This innovation would cost considerably less than their larger models, because of the smaller components and the lack of large, heavy pieces of steel used for the plow face itself.
Voting
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ABOUT THE ENTRANT
- Name:Eric Ingamells
- Type of entry:individual
- Profession:
- Number of times previously entering contest:never
- Eric's favorite design and analysis tools:Eyes, ears, hands, & mind. All others are secondary.
- Eric's hobbies and activities:Creating what I need.
- Eric is inspired by:Problems, issues, engineer's lack of real engineering, lack of a product I would use, lack of funds to buy "the real thing," and technology.
- Patent status:none