Transport Carriage Flexural Roller Mount for Curve Navigation
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing transport systems face challenges in navigating curves while maintaining high load-bearing capacity, profile accuracy, and low noise, with a focus on reliability, cost-effectiveness, and ease of manufacturing.
Innovation Solution
A transport system with a transport rail and carriage design featuring stationary and elastically mounted rollers, utilizing a flexural joint on a boom to accommodate varying rail widths and tolerances, ensuring reliable contact and minimal slippage through a preloaded spring-like action.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the transport rail width varies along its path (especially during transition from straight to curved sections), then the system can navigate curves, but the contact between rollers and rail becomes unreliable causing slippage
Solution Approach 1:
The transport carriage incorporates a dynamic adjustment mechanism that allows the roller positions to adapt to varying rail widths. The carriage can change its configuration from a rigid structure to a more flexible arrangement, enabling reliable contact during curve navigation while maintaining stability in straight sections.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes geometric parameters of the transport carriage, specifically the distance between rollers, to match the varying rail width. This parameter adjustment ensures continuous reliable contact between rollers and rail throughout the transition from straight to curved sections.
2Ease of manufacture
If rigid mounting of rollers is used, then manufacturing is simpler, but the system cannot accommodate rail width variations and tolerances
Solution Approach 1:
The mounting system transitions from a completely rigid structure to one with controlled flexibility. The transport carriage incorporates adjustable elements that provide the necessary adaptability while maintaining manufacturing feasibility through standardized components and procedures.
3Manufacturing precision
If complex optimization processes are used to calculate rail paths, then profile accuracy improves, but manufacturing and assembly costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The transport carriage adjusts its geometric parameters to adapt to the rail profile, eliminating the need for extremely complex rail path calculations. This shifts the adaptability requirement from the rail design to the carriage, simplifying manufacturing while maintaining positioning accuracy.
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
Enables efficient navigation of curves with high load capacity, precise positioning, and low noise, while reducing wear and maintenance, and maintaining system robustness and cost-effectiveness.
Implementation Method 1
The flexural joint has a lower flexural rigidity than the base section and/or the end section, at least in the transport direction. This lower flexural rigidity means that the flexural joint can be elastically deformed more easily in the transport direction than the base section and/or the end section.
Implementation Method 2
The preload force ensures that the third roller is always pressed against the rail with sufficient force. Ultimately, this results in the first and second rollers also having reliable contact with the transport rail. The aim is to ensure that no slippage occurs between the rollers and the transport rail.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
A transport system for transporting objects, comprising at least one transport rail having at least a first and a second running surface arranged opposite one another, and at least one transport carriage. It comprises a base body having a coupling surface coupled to an object carrier, at least one first roller mounted for rotation about a first axis of rotation, and at least one second roller mounted for rotation about a second axis of rotation, wherein the first and second axes of rotation are fixed relative to the base body. The rollers interact with the first running surface. The first and second axes of rotation define an axial direction perpendicular to a transport direction.Furthermore, at least one third roller, mounted for rotation about a third axis of rotation, is arranged on a boom, which has a base section connected to the main body, an adjoining elastically acting solid-state joint, and an end section adjoining the latter. The third roller is arranged at the end section, and the solid-state joint has a lower flexural rigidity, at least in the transport direction, than the base section and/or the end section. The boom is designed and arranged such that the third roller is pressed against the second running surface with a preload.