Curved Collar Profile for Packaging Machine Sheet Guidance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional packaging machines for products with longitudinal extension, such as spaghetti or breadsticks, face issues with laborious production processes, inability to mass-produce devices, and sheet damage due to internal collar profiles with sharp corners and straight sections, leading to wrinkles, tears, and inefficient packaging speeds.
Innovation Solution
A monolithic device with a collar featuring a continuous curved internal profile and no sharp corners, produced using 3D printing or stock-removal machining, ensuring smooth sheet guidance and eliminating the need for welding, allowing for easier and faster packaging.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If the collar is produced by bending and welding sheet metal to create a rectangular profile with sharp corners and straight sections, then the production process is traditional and familiar, but the process is long and laborious, cannot mass-reproduce devices, and creates critical points that cause sheet damage
Solution Approach 1:
The collar internal profile is designed with a continuous curve having at least four changes of curvature with respect to circularity, eliminating sharp corners and straight sections. This curved profile allows the packaging sheet to slide smoothly without creating wrinkles, tears, or creases, thereby maintaining sheet integrity while still being manufacturable through traditional sheet metal processes
Solution Approach 2:
The collar profile is segmented into multiple curved sections with changes of curvature, creating a complex continuous curve rather than simple straight lines and corners. This segmentation of the curvature allows the profile to guide the sheet smoothly through multiple directional changes without creating stress concentration points
2Ease of manufacture
If the collar has an internal profile with sharp corners and straight sections, then the manufacturing is simpler, but it creates critical points that cause wrinkles, tears, and creases on the sheet
Solution Approach 1:
The internal profile of the collar is designed with a continuous curve having at least four changes of curvature with respect to circularity, eliminating sharp corners and straight sections. This curved profile allows the packaging sheet to slide smoothly without creating wrinkles, tears, or creases, thereby maintaining sheet integrity
3Ease of manufacture
If the collar profile has straight sections and sharp corners, then the manufacturing process is conventional, but it produces visually unpleasant longitudinal fold lines and reduces packaging speed
Solution Approach 1:
The collar internal profile is designed with a continuous curve having at least four changes of curvature with respect to circularity, eliminating sharp corners and straight sections. This curved profile allows the packaging sheet to slide smoothly without creating wrinkles, tears, or creases, thereby maintaining sheet integrity
Solution Approach 2:
The continuous curved profile dynamically adapts to the movement of the packaging sheet, allowing it to guide the sheet smoothly through changes in direction without creating static stress points or fold lines that would slow down the packaging process
4Ease of manufacture
If the collar is made by welding two separate metal sheets, then the construction is traditional, but it requires laborious production and cannot mass-reproduce devices
Solution Approach 1:
The collar is designed as a monolithic piece formed from a single metal sheet through bending and joining operations, merging what would traditionally be separate components into one integrated structure. This eliminates the need for welding separate sheets and enables mass reproduction through consistent forming processes
Solution Approach 2:
The monolithic collar design serves multiple functions: it provides the structural framework, creates the curved guiding profile, and eliminates the need for separate welding operations. This multi-functionality in a single component enables both ease of manufacture and mass reproduction capability
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
The device enhances packaging speed, prevents sheet damage, and simplifies production, enabling mass-reproducibility and efficient packaging of both paper and polymeric materials without the need for welds, while maintaining reliability and low costs.
Implementation Method 1
The sheet slides over the substantially flat region of the device and is conveyed inside the collar
Implementation Method 2
The sheet is heat-sealed in a longitudinal direction at the two opposing facing flaps, creating a tubular package
Implementation Method 3
The sheet is subjected to a first cut and simultaneous heat-sealing, in a transverse direction, at the exit from the collar
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3
Figure 4
AI summary
A device (10) for packaging machines, which comprises a substantially flat region (11) that ends with a collar (12), the plane of arrangement of the region (11) being inclined with respect to the axis of extension of the collar (12), the collar (12) having a slit (13) along its wall (17) that lies opposite the region (11), parallel to the axis of extension thereof. The collar (12) has an internal profile with a continuous curve with at least four changes of curvature with respect to circularity.