Flexible Shaft Welding Machine for Plastic Sheets
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Solution Overview
Problem
Thin plastic materials (0.1 to 1.0 mm) are prone to ripple formation during overlap welding, making it difficult for users to react to wave formation due to obstructed visibility from system components like heating devices and pressure rollers, and requiring complex adjustments for seam geometry and surface cleanliness.
Innovation Solution
An automatic welding machine using flexible shafts to transmit torque and rotational speed between a gear and pressure and feed rollers, allowing for a compact design with clear visibility and easy accessibility, along with a worm gear for efficient power transmission and a clamping device for adjustable pressure, and a hot air blower or hot wedge for heat application.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a rigid shaft is used to transmit torque from the drive unit to the pressure and feed rollers, then the torque transmission is reliable, but the drive unit cannot be spatially separated from the welding area, obstructing visibility and accessibility
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies a flexible shaft (a type of flexible transmission element) to transmit torque from the drive unit to the pressure and feed rollers. This flexible shaft allows the drive unit to be positioned away from the welding area while maintaining reliable torque transmission, thus resolving the contradiction between reliability and ease of operation.
2Force
If thick pressure and feed rollers are used to ensure sufficient pressure for welding, then the welding pressure is adequate, but the visibility of the welding process is obstructed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent positions the drive unit in a different spatial dimension (away from the welding area) using the flexible shaft transmission, allowing the pressure and feed rollers to be thinner and less obstructive while maintaining adequate welding pressure through the flexible transmission mechanism.
3Stability of the object's composition
If the pressure and feed rollers are fixed in position for stable operation, then the operation is stable, but the rollers cannot be quickly replaced for different weld geometries or contamination
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a flexible shaft transmission system that allows the pressure and feed rollers to be dynamically positioned and easily replaced. The flexible connection enables the rollers to be swapped for different geometries or cleaned when contaminated, while the system maintains operational stability through the adaptable transmission mechanism.
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
The machine provides improved visibility and accessibility, simplifies construction, reduces wave formation in welded plastics, and allows for quick adjustments to seam geometry and material handling, resulting in higher quality welds with reduced material lift and increased operational ease.
Implementation Method 1
A flexible shaft, unlike a rigid shaft, is characterized by the fact that the axis of rotation at one end of the shaft, for example at a gearbox connection, and the axis of rotation at the other end, for example at a pressure and feed roller, can be oriented relative to each other in any desired direction. Flexible shafts typically consist of several layers of wires wound in opposite directions in a helical pattern
Implementation Method 2
the drive unit, which comprises a drive motor and at least one gearbox, uses a worm gear located between the drive motor and the flexible shafts
Implementation Method 3
a heating device for melting the plastic sheets
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3a~3b
Figure 4a~4b
AI summary
Welding machine (1) for edge-side, overlapping welding of plastic sheets, with a mobile support frame (2), a heating device (6) for melting the plastic sheets, at least two opposing, oppositely rotating pressure and/or feed rollers (18 or 18'), wherein at least one is driven, and at least one drive unit with a drive motor (10) and at least one gearbox (12) for driving the pressure and/or feed rollers (18 or 18'), wherein the pressure (18) and/or feed rollers (18') are driven by the drive unit via at least one flexible shaft (15, 15'). Furthermore, the transmission (12) can be designed as a worm gear (12) with a worm (13) that sits directly on a motor shaft (11) of the drive motor (10) and has two oppositely rotating worm wheels (14, 14') driven by the worm (13).