Movable Cable Guiding Rollers Reduce Abrasion
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional cable guiding devices for winches are large, costly, and suffer from significant abrasion due to sliding friction, leading to reduced service life and disorderly cable winding.
Innovation Solution
A compact cable guiding device design featuring rotatable and movable guiding rollers and guide members, which reduce sliding friction and allow the rollers to adjust in length, minimizing abrasion and cost while maintaining efficient cable management.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the upper and lower guiding rollers are made large in size to accommodate the cable's longitudinal movement during winding/unwinding, then the cable can be guided throughout the drum's axial movement, but the manufacturing difficulty and cost increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the dynamics principle by making the guiding rollers movable along the drum's axial direction rather than fixed. The rollers can dynamically adjust their position to track the cable's movement during winding and unwinding operations. This dynamic adjustment allows small-sized rollers to provide continuous guidance coverage throughout the drum's rotation cycle, eliminating the need for large-sized fixed rollers while maintaining reliable cable guidance.
2Productivity
If the cable moves along the longitudinal direction relative to fixed guiding rollers during winding/unwinding, then the cable can be wound onto the drum, but sliding friction occurs between the cable and roller surfaces causing abrasion and reduced service life
Solution Approach 1:
The patent eliminates sliding friction by making the guiding rollers movable in the longitudinal direction. As the cable moves during winding and unwinding, the rollers dynamically follow the cable's position, maintaining continuous contact without relative longitudinal motion. This dynamic tracking converts what would be sliding friction into rolling contact only, significantly reducing abrasion on both the cable and roller surfaces while maintaining effective cable winding capability.
3Ease of operation
If no load is applied to the free end of the cable during winding onto the drum, then the cable can be freely extended, but the cable becomes loose and cannot be wound tidily causing disorder and potential damage
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by having the guiding rollers positioned and adjusted in advance to meet the cable at its expected position during winding. The rollers are pre-configured to maintain proper cable tension and alignment throughout the winding process, ensuring the cable is guided tidily from the start. This preliminary positioning prevents cable looseness and disorderly winding before they can occur, maintaining both operational freedom and winding quality.
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 solution extends the service life of both the cable and the guiding device by reducing abrasion and size, while ensuring tidy winding without the need for power-driven components, thus lowering production costs.
Implementation Method 1
the upper and lower guiding rollers are rotatable relative to the upper and lower movable members respectively, so that during the cable being wound onto and unwound from the drum, no sliding friction occurs between the cable and the upper guiding roller as well as the lower guiding roller
Implementation Method 2
An upper movable member is fitted slidably over the upper guide member, in which two ends of the upper movable member are mounted on two longitudinal side walls of the slider respectively
Data Source
AI summary
A cable guiding device includes a base, upper and lower guide members disposed along a longitudinal direction, in which two ends of the upper guide member are mounted on the base and two ends of the lower guide member are mounted on the base. A slider defining a central cavity is penetrated therethrough in a lateral direction substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal direction. Upper and lower movable members are fitted slidably over the upper and lower guide members respectively, in which two ends of the upper movable member are mounted on two longitudinal side walls of the slider, and two ends of the lower movable member are mounted on two longitudinal side walls of the slider respectively. Upper and lower guiding rollers are fitted rotatably over the upper and lower movable members and disposed within the central cavity respectively.