Composite Roller for Plastic Preform Transport
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing roller sorters face issues with guiding plastic preforms with small support ring diameters, leading to incorrect guidance, jamming, and decreased sliding behavior due to problematic roller geometries.
Innovation Solution
The use of rollers with a base body made of a first material, such as plastic, surrounded by a layer of a different material with low friction and high stability, which allows for precise manufacturing and reduced imbalance, enabling efficient transportation of plastic preforms under gravity with enhanced sliding properties.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If metal rollers are used in roller sorters, then the rollers can be precisely balanced, but the rollers become heavy and require precise balancing which increases complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The roller is constructed as a composite structure with a plastic base body and a plastic coating layer. This composite material approach allows the roller to achieve the desired properties: lightweight construction from plastic materials while maintaining dimensional stability and controlled friction characteristics through the coating layer, eliminating the need for precise balancing of heavy metal rollers
2Device complexity
If traditional roller geometries are used, then the structure is simple, but plastic preforms with small support ring diameters slide deeper into the gap, causing incorrect guidance and jamming
Solution Approach 1:
The roller surface is coated with a plastic layer that has specific friction characteristics tailored for interacting with plastic preforms. This local modification of the roller surface properties ensures reliable guiding and sliding behavior of preforms with small support ring diameters, preventing them from sliding too deeply into the roller gap while maintaining the overall simple roller structure
3Ease of manufacture
If metal rollers with traditional geometries are used, then manufacturing is straightforward, but sliding behavior decreases and jamming occurs frequently with small support ring preforms
Solution Approach 1:
The roller combines a plastic base body with a plastic coating layer, where each material serves a specific function. The plastic base body provides lightweight construction and dimensional stability, while the plastic coating layer provides the appropriate friction characteristics for reliable sliding behavior with plastic preforms, eliminating jamming issues without complicating the manufacturing process
Solution Approach 2:
The friction coefficient of the roller surface is modified by applying a plastic coating layer with specific tribological properties. This parameter change in surface friction ensures optimal sliding behavior between the roller and plastic preforms, preventing excessive sliding into the roller gap and reducing jamming incidents
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
This configuration improves the guiding and sliding behavior of plastic preforms, reduces jamming, and allows for higher rotational speeds, making the rollers lighter and more stable, while minimizing the need for precise balancing.
Implementation Method 1
a layer made of a further material that differs from the first material and surrounds this base body in its circumferential direction, with this layer as a Contact layer for contacting the plastic containers
Implementation Method 2
the containers are transported under the influence of gravity. Advantageously, the containers or plastic preforms slide at least temporarily along the rollers in the longitudinal direction of the rollers
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3~5
Figure 6a~7b
AI summary
The device has two rollers, which are rotatably arranged about their longitudinal axes. The rollers are arranged such that the plastic material containers are transported between the rollers. The plastic material container is supported by the rollers during the transport. Each roller has a base body (22), which is made of a material and a layer (24), which surrounds the base body in its peripheral direction and is made from another material differing from the former material. The layer acts as a contact layer for contacting the plastic material containers.