Structural analysis of traditional Chinese complex puzzle locks

The development of barbed-spring locks in ancient China has a history of more than 2000 years. With the development of the design and manufacturing techniques in ancient China, the safety of locks has gotten better and better. Since the seventeenth century, the puzzle lock, with a complicated struct...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2022-07, Vol.12 (1), p.11237-11237, Article 11237
Main Authors: Shi, Kan, Wang, Ming Jie, Zhang, Yang, Hsiao, Kuo Hung, Yao, Yan An
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/166
639/166/988
Artisans
Design
Humanities and Social Sciences
Manufacturing
multidisciplinary
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Structural analysis
Topology
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Summary:The development of barbed-spring locks in ancient China has a history of more than 2000 years. With the development of the design and manufacturing techniques in ancient China, the safety of locks has gotten better and better. Since the seventeenth century, the puzzle lock, with a complicated structure and a high difficulty in opening, was gradually developed and used. The puzzle lock needs specific steps to be opened. Based on the difficulty of the opening process, traditional Chinese puzzle locks can be partition into two sorts, namely, general puzzle locks and complex puzzle locks. As the structure of the puzzle lock will change during the opening process, the puzzle lock belongs to the reconfigurable mechanism. In this paper, a method of topology matrix is provided to analyze the structure of the complex puzzle lock during systematical operation. Firstly, the characteristics and types of general puzzle locks are explained, and then the topology matrix representation is introduced. Finally, four complex puzzle locks are taken as examples, to illustrate the opening process. There are various types of complex puzzle locks, and the mechanism designs are quite ingenious and interesting, which shows the extraordinary technique and ingenuity of the ancient craftsmen.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-022-15326-z