Removable Multi-Belt Cartridges for Programmed Conveyor Gaps
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing multi-belt conveyors face challenges in maintaining consistent gaps between items of varying sizes and shapes, leading to reduced throughput, jamming, and complex maintenance that disrupts the conveyor's level surface, causing misalignment and loss of item tracking.
Innovation Solution
A multi-belt conveyor system with removable cartridges, each comprising a roller-slider bed and actuation assembly, allows for varying conveyor belt speeds and accelerations to create programmed gaps, and modular mounting/dismounting without disturbing adjacent cartridges, ensuring a level conveying surface.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If conveyor belts are operated at varying speeds to create gaps between items, then gap control is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The conveyor system is divided into multiple independent cartridges, each with its own drive pulley and conveyor belts. This segmentation allows each cartridge to operate at different speeds independently, enabling precise gap control between items while maintaining a relatively simple overall device structure through modular design.
2Ease of repair
If cartridges are made removable for maintenance, then ease of repair is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The conveyor bed is segmented into multiple removable cartridges that can be independently accessed and replaced. This modular segmentation allows maintenance personnel to remove and repair individual cartridges without dismantling the entire conveyor system, significantly improving ease of repair while the standardized modular design keeps the added complexity manageable.
Solution Approach 2:
Individual cartridges are extracted as separate removable units from the conveyor bed, allowing them to be maintained independently. This extraction principle enables repair workers to remove only the specific cartridge requiring maintenance rather than the entire conveyor system, improving repair efficiency.
3Productivity
If multiple conveyor belts move at different speeds, then productivity is improved through better item flow control, but reliability decreases due to potential misalignment
Solution Approach 1:
The conveyor is segmented into discrete cartridges that can be independently controlled. Each cartridge can adjust its speed to optimize item flow and create gaps as needed, improving productivity. The modular segmented design also means that misalignment in one cartridge does not propagate throughout the entire system, maintaining reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
Each cartridge can have locally optimized speed and acceleration characteristics tailored to specific positioning or gap creation needs. This local quality control allows different portions of the conveyor to operate with different speed profiles, improving overall productivity while maintaining proper alignment through localized adjustment rather than system-wide changes.
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 system effectively maintains consistent gaps and alignment, reducing jamming and maintenance complexity while preserving a level surface, enhancing conveyor efficiency and productivity.
Implementation Method 1
each cartridge comprises: an actuation assembly comprising a drive pulley configured to be rotated about an axis; a roller-slider bed comprising a plurality of rollers configured to be rotated by the actuation assembly
Implementation Method 2
a set of conveyor belts mounted around the roller-slider bed and the drive pulley, wherein the set of conveyor belts are configured to move over the roller-slider bed
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
A conveyor comprising: a conveyor bed comprising a cartridge having a set of conveyor belts and a set of rollers, wherein each conveyor belt of the set of conveyor belts is individually mounted over an associated roller of the set of rollers, and wherein each of the conveyor belts of the set of conveyor belts are configured to move in a direction along the conveyor bed over the associated roller of the set of rollers at respective and individually defined speeds; and a plurality of T bolts, wherein each of the plurality of T bolts is configured to engage cartridge frame tops of two adjacently positioned cartridges of a plurality of cartridges.