Fibrous Strip Guide With Asymmetric Helical Surfaces

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing sliver guides are ineffective in clearly associating specific positions with widths due to duplicated cross-sections and wasted space, leading to inefficiencies in fiber sliver compression and guidance.

Innovation Solution

A sliver guide with guide surfaces on an elongate base body, where the distance between the surfaces varies continuously around the circumference, allowing for precise control of sliver width and compression, and featuring a rotating base body with adjustable guide surfaces and a drive system for precise alignment and compression measurement.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If a circumferentially closed groove is used in a rotatable sliver guide, then the sliver can be compressed to different extents by rotating the guide, but each cross-section is duplicated and areas are wasted

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecompression controlVSAvoidwasted guide surface area
Core Design Contradiction:
Adaptability or versatilityVSLoss of substance

Solution Approach 1:

The guide surfaces are extracted from a closed circumferential groove and reconfigured as open helical lines that do not reconnect. This removes the duplication inherent in closed loops, allowing each cross-sectional area to appear only once while maintaining the rotatable compression control function.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The guide surfaces are designed with asymmetric helical paths rather than symmetric closed grooves. The helical lines start at one end of the base body and end at the other without returning, creating an asymmetric structure that eliminates duplicate areas while preserving the variable compression capability through rotation.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #4Asymmetry

2Device complexity

If the distance between guide surfaces varies uniformly around the circumference, then the structure is simple, but the effectiveness and clarity of position-width association is reduced

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveguide structureVSAvoidposition-width association
Core Design Contradiction:
Device complexityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The guide surfaces are designed with locally varied properties along their helical paths. The distance between the two guide surfaces changes continuously at different positions around the circumference, creating unique local characteristics for each position. This ensures that each position is clearly associated with a specific width, improving reliability while maintaining reasonable structural simplicity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Solution Approach 2:

The guide surfaces are configured to work dynamically with the rotatable base body. As the base body rotates, different sections of the helical guide surfaces come into contact with the sliver, providing variable compression. The dynamic rotation combined with the static helical pattern creates a reliable position-width association without requiring complex fixed structures.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #15Dynamics

Data Source

PatentEP3106551B1Fibrous strip guide
Publication Date: 2019.09.04 RIETER INGOLSTADT GMBH
  • EP3106551B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3106551B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP3106551B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

The invention relates to a fiber belt guide, particularly for use on a drawing machine, carding machine, or combing machine, comprising an elongated base body (2) with a guide formed in and/or on a lateral surface (3) of the base body (2) and comprising two guide surfaces (4a, 4b) spaced apart in the axial direction of the base body (2) to guide a fiber belt (6) running past the base body (2) between the guide surfaces (4a, 4b), and a bearing (5) by means of which the base body (2) is mounted so that the base body (2) is rotatable about its axial axis. According to the invention, the guide surfaces (4a, 4b) extend only partially around the circumference of the base body (2) and are spaced apart from each other to accommodate a flat, spread-out fiber belt (6) between them, the distance between the two guide surfaces (4a, 4b) decreasing continuously in the circumferential direction of the base body (2).