Conveyor Transportation Unit With Rotatable Jaws for Bottle Stability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conveyors used to transport bottles between machines in an industrial production line face issues where the rotation of clamping jaws due to track changes causes bottles to slide and potentially fall, leading to breakage.
Innovation Solution
A transportation unit with a gripping device featuring rotatable jaws interconnected by a sliding connection along a translation axis, allowing the jaws to maintain axial alignment regardless of shuttle position, ensuring consistent bottle grip throughout the conveying track.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If the first jaw and second jaw are fixed in place on the first shuttle and second shuttle respectively, then the structure is simple, but the bottle slides and may fall when transitioning from straight to curved track portions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the dynamics principle by making the jaws rotatable rather than fixed. The first jaw rotates about a first rotational axis and the second jaw rotates about a second rotational axis, allowing the jaws to dynamically adjust their orientation to maintain axial alignment with the bottle during transitions between straight and curved track portions, thereby preventing bottle slippage while maintaining structural simplicity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the orientation parameter of the jaws by introducing rotational degrees of freedom. The jaws can change their angular position relative to the shuttles, allowing them to adapt to different track geometries (straight vs. curved portions) while maintaining proper alignment with the bottle, thus resolving the contradiction between simple mounting and reliable gripping
2Reliability
If the jaws are mounted to rotate on the shuttles, then the bottle grip remains stable during track transitions, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The rotational mounting of jaws introduces dynamic adaptability to the system. Each jaw can independently rotate about its respective axis to compensate for track curvature changes, maintaining stable bottle contact without requiring complex control mechanisms or additional actuating components
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the jaw system into two independently rotatable jaws rather than a single rigid clamping mechanism. This segmentation allows each jaw to independently adjust to track geometry changes, providing reliable bottle gripping while keeping the overall structure relatively simple through modular design
Data Source
AI summary
A transportation unit for a conveyor includes a first shuttle and a second shuttle arranged to move along a planar conveying track independently of each other; and a gripping device including a first jaw mounted so that it can rotate on the first shuttle about a first rotational axis and a second jaw mounted so that it can rotate on the second shuttle about a second rotational axis parallel to the first rotational axis. The first jaw and the second jaw are interconnected by a sliding connection along a translation axis orthogonal to the first and second rotational axes to form the clamping jaws of a clamp having a clamping axis parallel to the translation axis.