Differential Roller Alignment for Sandwich Wrapper Misalignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing sandwich-stuffing food forming apparatuses struggle with aligning tortilla wrappers after folding, leading to exposure of stuffing during the automatic production process.
Innovation Solution
The apparatus employs differential speed rollers and conveyor belts with varying speeds, combined with an aligner, to ensure proper alignment and wrapping of the stuffing within the tortilla wrapper.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If a folding action is implemented during the preparing process to create half-circle Quesadilla, then the sandwich-stuffing food can be formed, but the sides of the wrapper are often not aligned after being folded, resulting in exposure of part of the stuffing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs differential speed rollers that rotate at different speeds to dynamically adjust and align the wrapper edges during the forming process. The first roller rotates faster than the second roller, creating a differential motion that actively corrects misalignment of the wrapper sides, ensuring they meet precisely without exposing the stuffing.
2Productivity
If conveyor belts with different speeds are used to increase yield, then productivity is improved, but positioning problem of the sandwich-stuffing food occurs during the production process
Solution Approach 1:
The aligner is positioned before the differential rollers and performs preliminary alignment of the wrapper edges. This preliminary action ensures that the wrapper is properly positioned before entering the differential speed rollers, preventing positioning problems that could arise from speed differences between conveyor belts.
3Ease of manufacture
If the wrapper is folded to wrap the stuffing, then the sandwich-stuffing food is formed, but the stuffing will be exposed and fall due to the misalignment of the two sides of the wrapper
Solution Approach 1:
The differential speed rollers create a dynamic alignment mechanism where the first roller (rotating faster) and second roller (rotating slower) work together to continuously adjust and maintain wrapper edge alignment during the folding process, ensuring the stuffing remains fully contained without exposure or falling.
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 effectively prevents stuffing exposure by ensuring complete wrapping and alignment of tortilla wrappers, enhancing the yield and efficiency of the sandwich-stuffing food production process.
Implementation Method 1
The at least one differential roller contacts an upper part of the wrapper on the stuffing when the semi-finished product is transported to the at least one differential roller
Implementation Method 2
The first conveyor belt transports the wrapper in a first direction
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is a sandwich-stuffing food forming apparatus, which uses differential speed rollers to avoid the problem that the wrapper cannot be aligned after the folding action in the prior art (the stuffing cannot be completely wrapped inside the wrapper). Further using conveyor belts with different speeds to increase the yield and aligner to solve the positioning problem of the sandwich-stuffing food during the production process (due to differences in conveyor belt speeds and/or heights), to solve technical problems encountered in the automation of sandwich-stuffing food.