Egg-Packing Device With Stationary Individual-Cup Transfer
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing egg filling systems are complex in configuration and slow in processing speed due to the need for moving cells to match egg tray locations, increasing device costs and time consumption.
Innovation Solution
An egg filling apparatus with an individual egg cup collection unit, filling location information acquisition, egg transfer mechanism, and individual egg cup removing and replenishing mechanisms to automate the filling process, allowing simultaneous transfer and removal of empty cups.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Extent of automation
If cells are moved along guide rails to correspond to egg tray locations, then egg filling can be automated, but device complexity increases and processing speed decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention divides the egg storage system into individual egg cups arranged in a grid pattern, where each cup can be independently accessed. This segmentation eliminates the need for moving entire cells along guide rails, simplifying the mechanism while maintaining automation capability through selective access to individual cups.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention extracts the egg transfer function from the cell movement function. Instead of moving cells to reach egg tray locations, the system keeps cells stationary and uses a transfer mechanism to move eggs from individual cups to the egg tray at the required locations, separating these two functions to reduce complexity.
2Extent of automation
If cells are moved along guide rails to correspond to egg tray locations, then egg filling can be automated, but processing speed decreases due to time required to move cells
Solution Approach 1:
Eggs are pre-placed in individual egg cups during a preparation phase before the filling operation. This preliminary arrangement allows the filling process to proceed at high speed by simply transferring eggs from pre-positioned cups rather than moving cells during the filling operation itself.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables continuous egg transfer operation by maintaining stationary cell positions while continuously moving eggs from individual cups to the egg tray. This eliminates the interruptions and delays associated with moving cells along guide rails during the filling process.
3Device complexity
If manual work is used for filling egg trays, then device complexity is low, but processing speed is slow and labor costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses automated mechanisms to transfer eggs from individual cups to the egg tray, with the transfer mechanism operating autonomously based on programmed instructions. This self-service automation eliminates manual labor while maintaining relatively simple device configuration through the use of straightforward transfer mechanisms.
Data Source
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AI summary
The present invention is an egg filling apparatus for filling an egg tray with eggs, which improves a processing speed while simplifying a configuration thereof, and includes: an individual egg cup collection unit 3 in which egg filled cups 2A on which eggs E are placed one by one are collected; a filling location information acquisition unit 4 that acquires information on a location where the egg E is to be placed in the egg tray 11; an egg transfer mechanism 5 that transfers the egg E from the egg filled cup 2A in the individual egg cup collection unit 3 to the egg tray 11 based on filling location information acquired by the filling location information acquisition unit 4; and an individual egg cup removing mechanism 6 that removes an empty cup 2B from the individual egg cup collection unit 3.