Cloth Feeder Trailing-End Transfer for Stable Unfolding Buffering
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current automatic cloth feeding systems face inefficiencies in processing and buffering capacity, leading to delays and instability in conveying and unfolding cloth, particularly when dealing with varying cloth properties and movement distances.
Innovation Solution
An automatic cloth feeder with a keeping-transferring part equipped with unfolding members that hold and transfer the trailing ends of the cloth, combined with a trailing end separating mechanism and a conveyor system designed to naturally convey cloth, allowing for smoother operation and increased buffering capacity without interference with lifting means.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the number of feeding stations is increased to increase output capacity, then the maximum capacity of the shaping part can be exhibited, but the balance between supply amounts from respective stations is not maintained and feeding work is delayed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a buffering function that accumulates cloth pieces in advance before they reach the shaping part. This preliminary accumulation allows the system to decouple the feeding rate from the shaping rate, ensuring continuous balanced supply to multiple feeding stations without delay
Solution Approach 2:
A buffering device acts as an intermediary between the feeding conveyor and the shaping part. This mediator accumulates cloth pieces and releases them at a controlled rate, balancing the supply to multiple feeding stations and preventing delays in the overall process
2Productivity
If the cloth movement distance per station is kept consistent, then the layout is simplified, but the number of pieces of cloth that can be buffered is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent adds a temporal dimension to the buffering function by introducing accumulation time. Instead of only extending the spatial layout to increase buffering capacity, the system buffers cloth pieces over time at each station, allowing sufficient buffering with consistent cloth movement distances
3Productivity
If the unfolding members operate at high speed, then the total amount of treatment is increased, but the stability of the unfolding process may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The buffering function ensures continuous supply of cloth pieces to the unfolding members, eliminating idle time and waiting periods. This continuous operation allows the unfolding members to maintain high speed while processing each cloth piece steadily, increasing total treatment amount without compromising stability
Data Source
AI summary
In an automatic cloth feeder that conveys cloth with a feeding conveyor, detects a trailing end of the cloth to hold the trailing end with a keeping-transferring part in the process of conveyance, and feeds the trailing end of the cloth into a process as a leading end, the keeping-transferring part has a pair of unfolding members provided as one set are provided on an outlet side of the feeding conveyor in order to hold the left and right trailing ends of the cloth, and the keeping-transferring part has holding pieces that are opened and closed substantially to the right and the left as seen from the top or from the front, to hold the trailing ends of the cloth but not coming into contact with the lifting means, in an open state and that is at the position of the lifting means in a closed state.