Inclined Conveyor Drive Wheel with Clearing Element
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Solution Overview
Problem
Inclined conveyors in self-propelled harvesters face issues with crop material accumulation between drive wheels and the belt, leading to interference with the belt's teeth engagement, increased wear, and clogging, which disrupts the conveying process and causes tension in the belt.
Innovation Solution
The design features a drive wheel with a radial circumferential surface forming a straight cylindrical shape, creating an annular free space between drivers, and a stationary clearing element that extends into this space to prevent crop material accumulation, ensuring smooth belt engagement and operation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a conical hub is used with flights extending from the hub, then the drive wheel can positively transport the belt, but crop material accumulates between the flights and hub causing over-gearing and skipping
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the harmful accumulation zone by introducing a clearing element that actively removes crop material from the space between flights and hub, preventing the accumulation that causes over-gearing and skipping while maintaining the conical hub design for positive belt transport
Solution Approach 2:
The clearing element acts as an intermediary between the flights and the hub, actively managing the space between them to prevent crop material accumulation. This intermediary component resolves the contradiction by maintaining the necessary geometry for positive transport while eliminating the harmful accumulation zone
2Reliability
If flights are arranged on a conical hub, then belt engagement is achieved, but tension between individual belts increases wear on belt teeth and connection points
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the source of excessive tension by extracting crop material from the accumulation zone between flights and hub. By preventing accumulation, the system maintains proper belt engagement without the excessive tension that causes accelerated wear on belt teeth and connection points
3Productivity
If crop material accumulates between flights and belt, then conveying continues, but meshing behavior between belt and drive sprockets is disrupted
Solution Approach 1:
The clearing element performs preliminary action by removing crop material from the accumulation zone before it can disrupt the meshing behavior between the belt and drive sprockets. This preventive clearing ensures that conveying operation continues without interruption from meshing disruptions
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3a~3b
AI summary
The present invention relates to an inclined conveyor (2) in which at least one drive wheel (4) is rotatably mounted on a drive shaft (11) for conveying crop (8) into a self-propelled harvesting machine (1), wherein the at least one drive wheel (4) is arranged non-rotatably on a drive shaft (21), wherein the at least one drive wheel (4) has drivers (26) arranged coaxially to the drive shaft (11), which are arranged uniformly distributed on an axial end face (27) of the hub (22) and are provided for the positive and/or non-positive transport of a toothed belt (5), wherein a radial circumferential surface (31) of the hub (22) facing the drivers (22) has a substantially straight cylindrical profile, so that a substantially annular clearance (32) is formed between the drivers (26) and the radial circumferential surface (31).wherein each drive wheel (4) is assigned a clearance element (23) which is fixedly arranged on a housing component of the housing (13) and which projects into the free space (32) and extends to the axial end face (27).