Apron Belt Conveyor Weighing Frame with Centering
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing apron belt conveyor systems face inaccuracies and potential damage due to horizontal forces and misalignments, leading to measurement errors and increased costs from complex guide rod devices and expensive load cell steel requirements.
Innovation Solution
A conveying and metering device with a statically indeterminate weighing frame supported by load cells and adjustable centering devices, using cantilever springs and self-aligning bearings to distribute forces uniformly and centrally, allowing for precise measurement without constraining forces or misalignments.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If complex guide rod devices are arranged in the region of weighing devices, then measurement accuracy is improved by preventing horizontal forces, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and eliminates the complex guide rod devices from the weighing region. Instead of adding protective structures, the solution uses a simple guide rail that runs continuously through the weighing devices, allowing the apron belt to track naturally without horizontal force interference while maintaining weighing accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The guide rail serves multiple functions: it guides the apron belt, prevents tracking deviations, and passes through weighing devices without requiring separate protection mechanisms. This universal structure eliminates the need for additional guide rod devices while maintaining both tracking accuracy and weighing precision.
2Measurement precision
If the weighing rail is made of load cell steel and machined to fit precisely, then measurement precision is improved, but manufacturing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces expensive load cell steel weighing rails with a simple guide rail made of conventional materials. The guide rail is not required to have precision machining or special material properties, significantly reducing manufacturing costs while maintaining weighing accuracy through its guiding function.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the weighing function from the guide rail structure itself, eliminating the need for precision-machined load cell steel rails. The simple guide rail provides guidance while separate weighing devices perform the measurement function, reducing manufacturing complexity and cost.
3Stability of the object's composition
If the apron belt is constrained by guide rods at weighing devices, then tracking accuracy is improved, but measurement accuracy deteriorates due to horizontal forces
Solution Approach 1:
The continuous guide rail provides tracking stability throughout the entire conveyor loop, including through the weighing devices, without requiring separate protection mechanisms. This universal structure maintains belt tracking while allowing free passage through weighing points, eliminating horizontal force interference.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent removes guide rods from the weighing device regions, eliminating the source of horizontal forces that interfere with measurements. The simple guide rail continues uninterrupted through the weighing devices, providing tracking stability without constraining the apron belt in a way that generates measurement errors.
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 solution enables accurate and error-free material metering by uniformly applying vertical forces to weighing devices, reducing measurement errors and costs through the use of inexpensive standard force transducers and flexible adjustment to match the existing substructure.
Implementation Method 1
The weighing devices are provided in the form of load cells, weighbeams, or weighing sensors, so-called force transducers, whose signals are analyzed by weighing electronics or analysis electronics.
Implementation Method 2
cantilever springs in the form of leaf springs with a rectangular cross section are provided on the weighing frame for load application of the vertical loads to the weighing devices
Implementation Method 3
an adjustable centering device is arranged between the weighing frame and each of the weighing devices. Consequently, the weighing frame can be matched to the existing substructure and the other guide rails so that misalignments between guide rail and weighing rail do not occur.
Data Source
AI summary
A conveying and metering device with an endless apron belt that is movable by rollers on guide rails, wherein sections of the guide rail that are opposite one another are separated from the adjacent sections and, for determining the mass of the conveyed material, are supported on weighing devices that are connected to an electronic analysis device. Provision is made that the sections of the guide rail to be weighed, together with longitudinal members and transverse struts that are perpendicular to the longitudinal members, form a weighing frame, and this weighing frame is supported at each of its four corners on a separate weighing device, wherein an adjustable centering device is provided between the weighing frame and each of the weighing devices.