Elastic Ring Moulding for Dry Cellulose Undercuts
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current dry-forming techniques for manufacturing rigid cellulose products with non-flat shapes and undercut grooves lack control over applied press forces, leading to inconsistent product quality and potential over-pressing issues, which affects the mechanical and aesthetic properties of the final product.
Innovation Solution
The method involves using a moulding tool with a top body and base body that abut in the axial direction, allowing for precise control of the ring body's radial expansion, ensuring consistent and optimal pressing forces in both axial and radial directions during the forming process, enabling the creation of rigid cellulose products with undercut grooves in a single pressing operation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If dry-forming techniques are used to manufacture rigid cellulose products with undercut grooves, then production time and energy consumption are reduced, but control over applied press forces becomes inconsistent leading to poor manufacturing precision
Solution Approach 1:
The ring body is made elastically deformable and configured to expand radially when the top body is displaced axially, creating a dynamic coupling between axial pressing force and radial forming force. This allows the system to automatically maintain consistent press forces during the forming process while achieving undercut grooves in a single operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the physical state of the ring body from rigid to elastically deformable, allowing it to expand radially in response to axial compression. This parameter change enables automatic force control through material elasticity, resolving the contradiction between production speed and manufacturing precision.
2Manufacturing precision
If wet-forming techniques are used to easily manufacture undercut grooves, then manufacturing precision for complex shapes is improved, but large amounts of water are required and drying becomes time and energy consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the water removal step entirely from the process by using dry-forming techniques. The elastically deformable ring body enables undercut groove formation in dry cellulose blanks through controlled radial expansion, eliminating the need for wet-forming and subsequent drying operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention replaces the wet-forming mechanical system with a dry-forming system using elastically deformable tooling. The radial expansion of the elastically deformable ring body substitutes for the water-based forming process, achieving the same geometric results without the associated time and energy costs.
3Productivity
If a single pressing operation is used to form both axial and radial features, then productivity is improved, but control over predetermined press forces becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The elastically deformable ring body creates a dynamic force transmission mechanism where axial displacement of the top body automatically generates controlled radial expansion. This dynamic coupling ensures that both axial and radial press forces remain within predetermined limits while achieving complex geometries in a single operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The elastically deformable ring body acts as an intermediary between the axial pressing mechanism and the radial forming action. It mediates the force transmission, converting axial compression into controlled radial expansion, thereby enabling simultaneous control of both axial and radial press forces in a single operation.
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 approach ensures all surfaces of the cellulose product are pressed with predetermined forces, resulting in time and energy-efficient production of high-quality cellulose products with precise undercut features, maintaining environmental benefits and improving production efficiency.
Implementation Method 1
the ring body is composed of an elastically deformable material, and wherein the ring body is configured to expand in the radial direction as a result of the top body being displaced from the extended position towards the compressed position
Implementation Method 2
press the cellulose blank between the bottom surfaces of the respective mould part and between the wall surfaces of the respective mould part into final shape by applying a predetermined pressure P in the axial direction of the moulding tool
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3~5
AI summary
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for dry manufacturing rigid cellulose products, the apparatus comprising a moulding tool having a first mould part (16) and a second mould part (17), wherein each of the mould parts comprises a bottom surface (18a, 18b) and a wall surface (19a, 19b) and wherein at least one of the first mould part (16) and the second mould part (17) is displaceable in the axial direction in relation to the other in order to press the cellulose blank (11) between the mould parts into final shape by applying a predetermined pressure P in the axial direction of the moulding tool, at least one of the first mould part (16) and the second mould part (17) comprising a base body (20a, 20b), a top body (21a, 21b) and an intermediate ring body (22a, 22b), wherein the top body (21a, 21b) is displaceable in the axial direction in relation to the base body (20a, 20b) between an extended position and a compressed position, the ring body (22a, 22b) comprising at least a part of the wall surface (19a, 19b) of the mould part (16, 17), wherein the ring body (22a, 22b) is composed of an elastically deformable material, and wherein the ring body (22a, 22b) is configured to expand in the radial direction as a result of the top body (21a, 21b) being displaced from the extended position towards the compressed position. The apparatus is characterized in that the top body (21a, 21b) and the base body (20a, 20b) of said at least one mould part abut each other in the axial direction when the top body (21a, 21b) is in the compressed position and the ring body (22a, 22b) has a radially expanded shape.