Cloth Standby Section for Stable Feeding in Automated Fabric Loaders
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing automatic cloth feeders face challenges in maintaining a stable supply of cloth to the feeding conveyor, leading to delays and reduced production volume, as they struggle to efficiently accumulate and manage cloth pieces.
Innovation Solution
The automatic cloth feeder incorporates a buffering device with a cloth standby section, where cloth is temporarily held before being fed onto the conveyor. This section is arranged both before and after the feeding conveyor, allowing for increased accumulation and flexible adjustment of the number of cloth pieces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the number of cloth pieces accumulated from the feeding station to the straightening unit is increased, then the stability of cloth supply is improved, but the device complexity increases due to limited space
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a cloth standby section that extends the cloth accumulation space in the vertical dimension by positioning the cloth supply section below the feeding conveyor. The cloth supply section moves upward from below to introduce cloth to the feeding conveyor, effectively utilizing vertical space to increase accumulation capacity without expanding the horizontal footprint of the device.
2Productivity
If a two-station feeding process is adopted to increase production volume, then the productivity is improved, but the balance of supply amount cannot be maintained leading to feeding delays
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a cloth standby section where cloth pieces are temporarily accumulated before being fed onto the feeding conveyor. This preliminary accumulation allows the system to prepare multiple cloth pieces in advance, ensuring that the straightening unit always has cloth available and preventing feeding delays that would otherwise occur in a two-station feeding process.
3Quantity of substance
If the cloth supply section is positioned below the feeding conveyor to increase accumulation capacity, then the quantity of cloth that can be stored is improved, but the ease of operation deteriorates due to complex movement mechanisms
Solution Approach 1:
The cloth supply section is equipped with a clamp that automatically grasps cloth pieces and the entire supply section automatically moves upward to introduce cloth to the feeding conveyor. This self-service mechanism reduces the need for manual intervention and simplifies operation, despite the automated movement required to position cloth from below the feeding conveyor.
Data Source
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Figure 3A~3B
AI summary
[Task] Provided is a buffering device in an automatic cloth feeder that includes a cloth standby section in which cloth stands by temporarily, and accumulates the cloth. [Means for Resolution] There is provided a cloth supply section 11 that can supply a quantity of cloth exceeding a processing quantity of feeding so as to proceed with feeding in an automatic cloth feeder 10 without congestion in the automatic cloth feeder performing a process in which the cloth is introduced to a feeding conveyor at a substantially central portion in a carrying direction, right and left trailing end portions are detected by crumpling the cloth from the right and left sides, the cloth is held in a deposition section, and the cloth is fed into a process. A cloth standby section 14 in which the cloth to be carried stands by temporarily is set at a preceding stage of a feeding conveyor 20 or at a following stage thereof.