Curved Tote and Reciprocating Conveyor for Frangible Product Handling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Fragile products, such as potato chips, often suffer breakage during loading, transportation, and unloading due to contact with each other, leading to losses and reduced efficiency in shared processing, bagging, and packaging facilities.
Innovation Solution
A system utilizing totes with upwardly curved interior surfaces and a reciprocating conveyor that gently loads and unloads products, minimizing breakage by using a tote platform with a vibration member to settle products densely and ensure smooth, edge-free surfaces for product handling.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If frangible products are loaded, transported and unloaded using conventional methods, then productivity and efficiency are improved through shared facilities, but product breakage and damage increase during handling
Solution Approach 1:
The tote interior surface is formed with a curved, upwardly concave configuration that eliminates sharp edges and corners. This curvature allows frangible products to roll and slide smoothly during loading and unloading operations, preventing impact damage and breakage while maintaining efficient material flow through the shared facility.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses vibration members to gently settle products into totes before transport, creating a cushioned, densely packed arrangement that prevents breakage during subsequent handling operations at the shared facility.
2Device complexity
If products are transported in bulk to shared facilities, then equipment and labor costs are reduced through sharing, but breakage and damage occur during loading and unloading
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides products into individual totes with curved interiors for separate handling. This segmentation allows gentle loading and unloading of each tote independently at the shared facility, reducing product-on-product impact and breakage while maintaining cost-effective shared equipment usage.
Solution Approach 2:
The curved tote acts as an intermediary container between production and processing facilities. Its specially designed interior geometry mediates the handling process by providing a smooth, edge-free environment that protects frangible products during transfer operations at the shared facility.
3Productivity
If conventional loading methods are used, then loading speed is maintained, but product breakage increases due to contact between products
Solution Approach 1:
The curved interior surface of the tote enables products to follow a smooth rolling path during high-speed loading operations. This eliminates sharp impacts and product-on-product contact damage while maintaining rapid loading speeds through the edge-free geometry that facilitates continuous product flow.
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 system effectively reduces breakage and maintains product freshness by using a tote platform with a reciprocating conveyor and vibration member to handle fragile products efficiently during loading and unloading, ensuring minimal product damage and efficient transportation.
Implementation Method 1
a tote platform with a vibration member to settle products densely
Data Source
Figure 1A~1B
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
A system and a method for gently loading, transporting and unloading frangible products (50) using totes (60) is provided. The system includes a loading station (100) at a first location, an unloading station at a second location and a plurality of totes (60) for use in storing the frangible products (50) for transportation from the first location to the second location. The totes (60) include an interior space that is upwardly curved for gently receiving the frangible products therein as they are laterally discharged off of a lateral discharge portion (22) of a reciprocating conveyor (20). Two or more totes (60) can be sequentially loaded along the lateral discharge portion (22) of the reciprocating conveyor (20) using backpressure caused by accumulation of frangible products (20) along the edge of the lateral discharge portion (22) of the reciprocating conveyor (20) to redirect incoming frangible products (50) towards a downstream section of the lateral discharge portion (22) of the reciprocating conveyor (20).