Lubricant Dispenser Piston Segmentation for Low Power Metering
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing lubricant dispensers face challenges in achieving high pressure and precise metering with conventional electric motors, leading to inefficient lubrication and complex designs.
Innovation Solution
A lubricant dispenser with a sealed piston and cylinder arrangement, utilizing a stepping motor to generate negative and positive pressures for precise lubricant conveyance, allowing for high-pressure lubrication and easy reservoir exchange, and incorporating check valves for leak prevention.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Power
If a conventional electric motor with a piston extending over the entire cross section of the reservoir is used, then the motor can move the piston to press lubricant out, but the motor requires high power and complex travel control with angle switches
Solution Approach 1:
The piston is segmented into a pump piston with limited cross-sectional area rather than extending across the entire reservoir. This segmentation allows the motor to operate on a smaller effective area, reducing the required motor power and simplifying the control mechanism while maintaining effective lubricant displacement capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention utilizes pressure differentials created by the reciprocating motion of the pump piston within the cylinder to move lubricant. The system employs intake and outlet channels that leverage pressure changes during piston movement, eliminating the need for complex angle switches and travel control mechanisms.
2Stress or pressure
If a piston with small cross-sectional area is used in a connecting conduit, then higher pressure can be generated at the same motor power, but the piston must be precisely fitted and sealed
Solution Approach 1:
The reservoir is designed as a disposable cartridge that can be easily replaced when depleted. This approach shifts the precision requirements to the disposable component rather than the permanent pump mechanism, making high-precision sealing more economically feasible as the sealed components are replaced rather than maintained.
Solution Approach 2:
The system separates the reservoir from the pump mechanism, with the pump piston operating in a dedicated cylinder rather than directly in the reservoir. This segmentation allows for optimized sealing arrangements at the cylinder-piston interface while maintaining easy replaceability of the reservoir cartridge.
3Ease of operation
If the reservoir is made as a separate replaceable cartridge, then empty reservoirs can be quickly exchanged, but the connection between reservoir and pump must be leak-proof
Solution Approach 1:
The reservoir cartridge is pre-equipped with integrated sealing elements and connection features that ensure leak-proof attachment to the pump mechanism. The sealing arrangements are built into the cartridge design, allowing for quick connection and disconnection without compromising seal reliability during operation.
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 design enables efficient, precise lubricant metering and high-pressure lubrication with reduced motor power requirements, facilitating easy reservoir replacement and preventing undesired emptying, while simplifying the design and operation.
Implementation Method 1
a negative pressure in comparison with the pressure in the reservoir can be generated in the cylinder during a movement of the piston into its intake position in order to draw or admit lubricant from the reservoir into the cylinder
Implementation Method 2
a positive pressure can be generated in the cylinder during an opposite movement of the piston out of its intake position in order to convey lubricant out of the cylinder and into the outlet channel
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a lubricant dispenser having a storage container, an outlet channel, and a pump element disposed between the storage container and outlet channel for conveying lubricant. A piston is sealed in a cylinder and is movable between two positions, of which, in a suction position, the cylinder is in a flow connection with the storage container. The cross-section area of the piston is smaller than the cross-section area of the storage container. The piston and the cylinder are adapted to one another such that, upon a movement of the piston into the suction position thereof, a negative pressure may be generated in the cylinder as compared to the pressure in the storage container for taking in or letting in lubricant from the storage container into the cylinder, and such that, upon a movement of the piston in the opposite direction out of the suction position in the cylinder, a positive pressure may be generated for conveying the lubricant out of the cylinder into the outlet channel.