Drip Irrigation Emitter Protrusion Design for Clogging Resistance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current drip irrigation systems face challenges in production costs and efficiency due to complex mechanisms for inserting and orienting emitters, leading to issues like reduced water flow velocity, clogging, and pipe strength, particularly with conventional wide water outlet basins and self-adjustable emitters that are prone to foreign matter ingress and uneven calibration.
Innovation Solution
The integration of prismatic or cylindrical protrusions with inclined sides within the drip irrigation pipe, allowing for multiple water outlet openings and a narrow outlet channel, facilitated by an elastic wheel and rotating fraise system, which minimizes occupied width, ensures uniform welding, and maintains high water flow velocity while reducing pipe thickness and weight.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If conventional wide water outlet basins with high protrusions are used, then water outlet openings can be formed by cutting off the protrusion tips, but water flow velocity is reduced and clogging occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The water outlet basin is divided into multiple smaller outlet openings instead of a single wide basin. This segmentation maintains ease of manufacture through the cutting process while improving water flow velocity and reducing clogging by creating multiple flow paths that prevent debris accumulation in a single large chamber.
Solution Approach 2:
The emitter structure uses different geometries for different functions: the outlet openings have specific dimensions optimized for water flow velocity, while the welding area maintains sufficient surface area for reliable pipe welding. This local differentiation resolves the contradiction between制造 ease and flow performance.
2Adaptability or versatility
If self-adjustable emitters with irregular convex shapes are used, then adaptability is improved, but pipe wall thickness becomes non-uniform and pipe strength is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The emitter body is segmented into distinct functional zones: a self-adjustment chamber for adaptability, and separate outlet openings for water discharge. This segmentation allows the pipe wall to maintain uniform thickness while providing both self-adjustment capability and structural strength, as each zone performs its specific function without compromising the other.
Solution Approach 2:
The self-adjustment mechanism is extracted as a separate internal chamber within the emitter body, isolated from the outlet openings. This extraction allows the pipe wall to maintain uniform thickness for strength while the internal chamber provides adaptability, resolving the contradiction between versatility and structural integrity.
3Manufacturing precision
If sophisticated mechanisms for orienting, inserting and detecting emitters are used, then emitter position accuracy is improved, but production cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The emitter structure is segmented with distinct geometric features: a self-adjustment chamber, outlet openings, and specific welding surfaces. This segmentation enables simple detection mechanisms that identify emitter position based on these geometric characteristics, achieving high position accuracy without complex detection systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The emitter geometry itself serves as the detection and orientation reference. The specific arrangement of outlet openings and welding surfaces allows the production line to detect and verify emitter position through simple geometric recognition rather than complex sensing mechanisms, reducing device complexity while maintaining manufacturing precision.
4Device complexity
If a single water outlet through the cannula is used, then the structure is simplified, but susceptibility to foreign matter ingress is increased
Solution Approach 1:
The single water outlet is segmented into multiple outlet openings. This segmentation maintains relative structural simplicity while dramatically reducing susceptibility to foreign matter ingress, as debris is less likely to block multiple smaller openings simultaneously compared to a single large outlet.
Solution Approach 2:
The outlet structure transitions from a single-point outlet to a distributed array of openings. This dimensional change from one-dimensional single outlet to two-dimensional distributed pattern reduces the probability of clogging by foreign matter while maintaining structural simplicity.
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 reduces production costs, enhances pipe strength, prevents clogging, and maintains high water flow velocity by creating a unified, compact assembly with multiple outlet openings, addressing the limitations of conventional systems and improving the reliability and efficiency of drip irrigation.
Implementation Method 1
The emitter is inserted and welded into the interior of a drip irrigation pipe during its production phase
Implementation Method 2
an elastic wheel and rotating fraise system, which minimizes occupied width, ensures uniform welding
Implementation Method 3
a rotating cutting device, thus forming a water outlet to the ground
Data Source
Figure 1~3a
Figure 4~10
Figure 7~11
AI summary
The irrigation emitter (1) of the present invention is inserted and welded in the interior of a drip irrigation pipe (2) during production thereof. It has a number of protrusions (8) arranged in a row emerging from a solid flat part/base (6) of the outer convex surface (7) of the emitter (1). The pipe (2) is locally swollen, covers and is welded both on the protrusions (8) and on their base (6), so that a unified welded assembly is formed between protrusions (8) and the pipe. The water outlets (10) are typically and preferably formed between the prismatic protrusions (8) by cutting off the tips of the protrusions (8) during passage of the drip irrigation pipe in a continuously rotating concave fraise (35) located at the end of the production line. Cutting takes place after the pipe has passed through a system of successive pairs of concave and convex rollers which squeeze it, stretch it and make it rigid, maintaining it in an flattened convex and bent form.