Conveyor Belt Guide Roller with Snap-Fit Bearing Retention
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing conveyor belt lateral guidance systems require the removal and replacement of roller bearings when changing the plastic roller body, leading to inefficiencies and potential damage, especially due to manufacturing tolerances and wear issues with plastic tape rolls.
Innovation Solution
The use of radially re-entrant, resilient latching tongues separated by an annular groove on the roller body's end face, combined with a locking ring that secures the roller bearings in place, allowing for easy replacement of the plastic roller body without removing the roller bearings, and corrugated bearing surfaces for tolerance compensation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If roller bearings are supported axially on a collar of the support shaft with snap rings, then the roller bearings are securely fixed, but the roller bearing at the free end must be removed when changing the roller body
Solution Approach 1:
The roller body is segmented from the roller bearings through the annular groove and latching tongues. The latching tongues act as a separate retention mechanism that can be released independently, allowing the roller body to be removed without affecting the roller bearings mounted on the support shaft.
Solution Approach 2:
The latching tongues serve as an intermediary retention mechanism between the roller body and the roller bearings. They provide the securing function without creating a permanent mechanical connection, enabling easy release and replacement of the roller body while maintaining secure mounting during operation.
2Reliability
If metal parts are added to the plastic roller body for bearing support, then the roller bearings are securely mounted, but the plastic roller body becomes more complex and costly
Solution Approach 1:
The roller body material properties are utilized to create the latching tongues with resilient characteristics. By changing the physical state and mechanical properties of the plastic material, the structure achieves secure retention without requiring additional metal parts, thereby reducing complexity and cost.
Solution Approach 2:
The solution uses the plastic material itself in a composite structural form, where the roller body incorporates integrated latching tongues made of the same material. This eliminates the need for heterogeneous metal parts while maintaining secure mounting of the roller bearings.
3Device complexity
If the roller body is made purely of plastic without metal parts, then the structure is simpler and cheaper, but the roller bearings cannot be securely fixed axially
Solution Approach 1:
The plastic material's mechanical properties are optimized to provide resilient latching action. The latching tongues are designed with specific elasticity and force characteristics that enable secure axial fixation of the roller bearings without requiring metal reinforcement, thus maintaining structural simplicity while ensuring reliability.
4Ease of manufacture
If bearing surfaces are made flat, then manufacturing is simpler, but manufacturing tolerances cause distortion and require post-processing
Solution Approach 1:
The bearing surfaces are designed with corrugated or curved geometry instead of flat surfaces. This curvature allows the bearing surfaces to self-align and compensate for manufacturing tolerances during assembly, eliminating the need for post-processing while maintaining manufacturing 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 enables the plastic roller body to be easily swapped without disturbing the roller bearings, ensuring secure mounting and minimizing post-processing efforts by accommodating manufacturing tolerances through a press fit mechanism, thus enhancing operational efficiency and reducing maintenance costs.
Implementation Method 1
radially re-entrant, resilient latching tongues, which are separated from the rest of the roller body by an annular groove on the end face opposite the end wall
Implementation Method 2
the roller body can form corrugated bearing surfaces with wave crests and wave troughs running in the axial direction for the two rolling bearings, the enveloping cylinder of the wave crests being smaller in the unloaded state of the bearing surfaces, but the enveloping cylinder of the wave troughs being larger
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3
AI summary
A device for the lateral guidance of a conveyor belt with a belt roller (1) is described, the roller body (2) of which is made of plastic and is freely rotatable on a support shaft (3) by means of two rolling bearings (4, 5) arranged at an axial distance from each other, which are axially supported against the support shaft (3) by a collar (6) provided between them. To create advantageous design conditions, it is proposed that the two rolling bearings (4, 5) are axially held against the roller body (2) between an end wall (8) of the roller body (2) and radially projecting, resilient detent tongues (9) separated from the rest of the roller body (2) by an annular groove (10) on the end face opposite the end wall (8), and that a locking ring (11) engages positively in the annular groove (10) of the roller body (2).