Ceiling Traveling Vehicle Guide Roller Alignment at Track Branches
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Solution Overview
Problem
Ceiling traveling vehicles face difficulties in maintaining a stable posture at track branching points due to limitations in the construction accuracy of travel and upper guide rails, leading to uneven contact and potential impacts.
Innovation Solution
A traveling vehicle equipped with a pair of wheels and a guide roller, along with an adjusting mechanism using cams to adjust the guide roller's position in the right-and-left direction, ensuring precise alignment with the guide rail at branching points.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If the construction accuracy of the travel rail and upper guide rail is increased to improve vehicle posture maintenance, then the posture stability is improved, but the manufacturing cost and complexity increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The guide roller is made adjustable in position along the travel rail through an adjusting mechanism, allowing dynamic adaptation to different branching portion geometries. This replaces the need for high static construction accuracy of fixed rails with a dynamically adaptable system that can compensate for variations in rail layout.
Solution Approach 2:
The position parameter of the guide roller is made variable through the adjusting mechanism, enabling it to change according to the specific geometry of different branching portions. This parameter change allows the system to maintain stable vehicle posture without requiring uniform high construction accuracy across all rail sections.
2Reliability
If the construction accuracy of the travel rail and upper guide rail is increased to ensure smooth travel at branching points, then the travel smoothness is improved, but the device complexity and manufacturing difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The adjusting mechanism enables the guide roller position to be dynamically adjusted based on the vehicle's travel direction and the branching portion geometry. This dynamic adjustment ensures smooth travel through branching points without requiring complex fixed rail configurations for each possible branching scenario.
Solution Approach 2:
The adjustable guide roller system serves multiple functions: it guides the vehicle through different branching portions, compensates for construction tolerances, and adapts to various track layouts. This single adjustable component replaces the need for multiple specialized rail configurations, reducing overall system complexity.
3Device complexity
If a fixed guide roller position is used to simplify the adjusting mechanism, then the device complexity is reduced, but the ability to maintain posture across multiple branching portions deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The guide roller position is made adjustable along the travel rail, allowing it to adapt to different branching portion geometries. This dynamic positioning capability enables the system to maintain proper vehicle posture across multiple types of branching portions without requiring an overly complex adjusting mechanism.
Solution Approach 2:
The adjusting mechanism is configured to pre-position the guide roller at appropriate locations before the vehicle reaches branching portions. This preliminary adjustment ensures optimal posture maintenance without requiring complex real-time control systems during vehicle traversal.
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
Enables smooth and stable travel through branching portions of the track by maintaining the vehicle's posture without impacts, utilizing a control system to manage the adjusting mechanism for precise alignment.
Implementation Method 1
a guide roller configured to roll in contact with the guide rail
Implementation Method 2
a pair of wheels each configured to roll on a corresponding one of the pair of travel rails
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is a ceiling traveling vehicle that travels on a track including a pair of travel rails and including an upper guide rail in a branching portion, the traveling vehicle including: a body portion; a pair of travel wheels each configured to roll on a corresponding one of the travel rails; an upper guide roller configured to roll in contact with the upper guide rail; and a cam configured to adjust a position of the upper guide roller in a right-and-left direction in the body portion, depending on the branching portion.