Interchangeable Embossing Rollers with Rotating Support Arms
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing embossing groups face challenges with time-consuming and unbalanced roller replacement, requiring complex disassembly and reassembly for different designs, and are often bulky due to heavy steel roller supports, making them inefficient and costly to operate, especially when accommodating multiple roller configurations.
Innovation Solution
An embossing group with interchangeable rollers is designed, featuring rotating supports with three arms that allow easy swapping of steel embossing rollers, maintaining balance and compactness, even when one station is empty, using a frame with two rotating supports constrained to rotate around their central axis, enabling synchronized embossing operations with rubber-coated rollers and a locking mechanism for stability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If three pairs of steel embossing rollers are arranged on a rotating star with long arms, then three different pairs of embossing rollers can be phased with each other to emboss three different tissue products, but the support star becomes unbalanced due to weight distribution and requires a large size
Solution Approach 1:
A counterweight is attached to the rotating star at a position opposite to the roller mounting location. This counterweight compensates for the unbalanced weight distribution caused by the steel embossing rollers, allowing the rotating star to maintain stable rotation without excessive vibration or mechanical stress, thereby resolving the balance issue while preserving the ability to emboss three different tissue products
2Adaptability or versatility
If steel embossing rollers are replaced with different designs for different customer batches, then product variety is improved, but time-consuming disassembly and reassembly operations are required
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple pairs of steel embossing rollers with different designs are pre-mounted on the rotating star at fixed positions. Before production, the rotating star is rotated to bring the required roller pair into the working position. This preliminary arrangement of rollers eliminates the need for time-consuming disassembly and reassembly operations during production changes, as all required rollers are already in place and can be selected by simple rotation
3Adaptability or versatility
If steel embossing rollers are mounted on a rotating star, then roller interchangeability is improved, but the support structure becomes bulky due to heavy weight distribution
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of mounting rollers on long radial arms extending from the center, the rollers are mounted on short arms that rotate around a central axis. This dimensional change in the mounting arrangement allows the rollers to be positioned closer to the rotation axis, reducing the moment of inertia and allowing for a more compact, lighter support structure while maintaining the ability to interchange rollers by rotation
Data Source
AI summary
An embossing group with interchangeable rollers for the surface processing of tissue paper comprises a frame (13) bearing three pairs of steel embossing rollers (17), each pair being movable between a first operative position for embossing two paper plies (11, 12) and rest positions, as well as it comprises two rubber-coated rollers (19, 20) which can be coupled with the pair of embossing rollers (17) placed in the operative position, and it further comprises two pairs of rotating supports (14, 15), wherein each one is provided with three arms (16), each one bearing at the end a locking element (18) for one end of an embossing roller (17), the rotating supports (14, 15) being constrained to the frame (13) rotating around their own central axis.