Conveyor Chain Double Hinge Design
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional conveyor chains have high material costs and excessive lengthening under heavy loads, leading to reduced functionality of the chain wheel due to insufficient load-bearing capacity.
Innovation Solution
A conveyor chain with reduced sheet metal thickness and diameter of the hinge pin, featuring a double hinge design, maintains comparable load-bearing capacity while lowering material costs by approximately 20%.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If the thickness of sheet metal and diameter of hinge pin are reduced, then material costs are reduced, but load bearing capacity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The hinge assembly is divided into two separate hinge assemblies instead of one, distributing the load across multiple connection points. This segmentation allows each individual hinge to use thinner sheet metal and smaller hinge pins while the combined structure maintains adequate load bearing capacity.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the structural parameter from a single hinge assembly to a double hinge assembly configuration. This parameter change allows reduction in the thickness of sheet metal (from 2.9-3.1 mm to thinner gauges) and diameter of hinge pins (from 6.0-6.4 mm to smaller diameters) while maintaining overall structural strength through the distributed dual-hinge design.
2Length of moving object
If the chain length increases under heavy loads, then the chain can accommodate more bottles, but the chain wheel can no longer function properly
Solution Approach 1:
By implementing double hinge assemblies, the chain structure is segmented into more rigid units that resist excessive elongation under load. This segmentation prevents the chain from lengthening beyond functional limits while still accommodating the required number of bottles on the conveyor.
3Quantity of substance
If a double hinge design is implemented with reduced dimensions, then material costs are reduced by 20%, but maintaining load bearing capacity of 5000 N becomes challenging
Solution Approach 1:
The double hinge design creates a counterbalancing structural arrangement where the two hinge assemblies work together to distribute and counteract applied loads. This counterbalancing effect allows the use of reduced-dimensional components (thinner sheet metal, smaller pins) while maintaining the required 5000 N load bearing capacity through the combined structural support.
Data Source
Figure 1A~1B
Figure 1C
Figure 2A~2B
AI summary
A conveyor chain (1) , comprising a series of sheet metal chain links (2) which are each provided with a basically rectangular conveying body part (3) and with a hinge assembly (4) , which hinge assembly comprises a centrally located hinge loop (7) and comprises a pair of hinge loops (10) spaced apart with an intermediate distance (9) on the opposite longitudinal side of the chain link, wherein the central loop is located in the intermediate space of a successive module(2'), wherein the hinge assembly(4) further comprises two auxiliary hinge loops (12) , wherein the cooperating hinge loops of successive modules are connected by means of hinge pins (14) , the thickness of the sheet metal of the conveying body part being between approximately 2.0 mm and approximately 2.8 mm, and wherein the diameter of the hinge pin is between approximately 3.0 and 5.0 mm .