Adjustable Conveyor Belt for Irregular Folding Box Transport
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current transport devices struggle to handle small and irregularly shaped folding box blanks effectively, leading to alignment issues and reduced productivity due to the requirement for straight edges, which complicates subsequent processing.
Innovation Solution
A transport device with adjustable conveyor belts and pressure belts allows for individual length adjustment to accommodate various box dimensions, ensuring safe and precise transport without slippage, using deflection rollers and linear drives for easy adjustment and sensor-aided alignment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If fixed-length conveyor belts are used, then the transport device can handle standard-sized boxes, but it cannot accommodate small or irregularly shaped boxes without alignment issues
Solution Approach 1:
The conveyor belt length is made dynamically adjustable through a telescopic mechanism that extends or retracts the belt based on the size and shape of the box being transported. This allows the same device to adapt to various box dimensions without requiring multiple fixed-length belts or complex reconfiguration systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The effective length parameter of the conveyor belt is changed continuously to match the dimensions of different boxes. By adjusting the belt length parameter rather than using discrete fixed-length belts, the system achieves high adaptability with relatively simple mechanical adjustments.
2Reliability
If the conveyor belt length is extended to transport boxes over longer paths, then transport reliability increases, but the risk of slippage and interaction with upstream/downstream devices increases
Solution Approach 1:
The conveyor belt system uses a dynamically adjustable telescopic mechanism that extends the belt length only to the necessary working distance. This prevents excessive belt length that could cause slippage or unwanted interactions with other devices, while maintaining reliable transport over the required path.
Solution Approach 2:
The effective working length of the conveyor belt is optimized by adjusting its length parameter to match the specific transport distance required for each box size. This prevents both insufficient length (causing slippage) and excessive length (causing unwanted interactions).
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 device reliably transports small and irregularly shaped boxes with high precision and throughput, minimizing interactions with upstream or downstream devices, thus enhancing the overall processing efficiency and reliability.
Implementation Method 1
a conveyor belt and a pressure belt form a gap through which the box to be transported is moved
Implementation Method 2
The pressure belt ensures a defined normal force between the carton and the conveyor belt, so that the speed of the conveyor belt is transferred to the carton without slipping
Data Source
AI summary
A transport device is proposed that can be used at various points in a process chain for processing folding carton blanks. The transport device according to the invention is simple in design and very flexible.