Conveyor Return Roller Servicing via Rotatable Mandrel
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conveyor belt systems face challenges in maintaining and servicing return rollers due to their hostile environment and limited access, requiring costly and hazardous procedures to replace or repair them from both sides of elevated conveyor systems.
Innovation Solution
A mounting apparatus that allows the return roller to be disengaged and removed from one side of the conveyor system using a mandrel and rotatable member, enabling easy replacement and maintenance while maintaining support for the conveyor belt.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If traditional mounting arrangements are used, then the return roller is securely supported during operation, but the return roller requires access from both sides of the conveyor for servicing
Solution Approach 1:
The mounting arrangement is segmented into a stationary mounting bracket and a movable support structure. The support structure can be independently manipulated to disengage the roller from one side while maintaining support from the other side, enabling single-sided servicing without requiring disassembly of the entire mounting system.
Solution Approach 2:
The support structure incorporates movable components that can transition between engaged and disengaged positions. This dynamic capability allows the support structure to adapt during servicing operations, providing support when needed and allowing removal when the roller needs to be accessed from one side only.
2Ease of operation
If catwalks and platforms are duplicated on both sides of the conveyor system, then access to return rollers is improved, but the cost and complexity of the conveyor system increases
Solution Approach 1:
The mounting arrangement enables maintenance personnel to service return rollers from a single accessible side using the existing catwalk infrastructure. The design allows the roller to be disengaged and removed from the far side through the near side, eliminating the need for duplicate catwalks and platforms on both sides of the conveyor system.
3Reliability
If safety equipment and procedures are strictly followed to access the far side of elevated conveyor, then personnel safety is ensured, but maintenance time and complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of requiring personnel to access the far side of the conveyor through dangerous framework traversal, the design inverts the approach by enabling roller removal from the near side. The support structure is designed to allow the roller to be disengaged and pulled through from the accessible side, eliminating the need for hazardous far-side access while maintaining safety.
Data Source
AI summary
A return side conveyor belt support for a conveyor may comprise: a mandrel mountable to the far side of the conveyor and extending transversely toward the near side thereof; a member slidably and rotatably mountable to the mandrel from the near side of the conveyor for sliding thereon and for rotating about the mandrel; a return roller rotatable and supported by the member, wherein the return roller is transverse to the conveyor belt when the member is mounted to the mandrel, wherein rotating the member in a first direction moves the return roller to an operating position for supporting the conveyor belt and rotating the member in a second direction moves the return roller to a position wherein the member and return roller are removable from the support mandrel.