Multiple Conveyor for Filling Rigid Containers
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Solution Overview
Problem
Automatic machines for packing rigid tubular containers face inefficiencies due to the need for slow operation and high construction complexity when using traditional single-step conveyors, which are unsuitable for handling different drive types and result in low productivity and operational reliability.
Innovation Solution
A multiple conveyor system with two superposed transporters along a ring-wound trajectory, featuring gripping organs in batteries that can dynamically adjust their spacing to ensure continuous operation at inlet and outlet stations while allowing intermittent advancement at the filling station, optimizing the advancement cycle for each operating station.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a traditional single-step conveyor is used to transport containers, then the construction is simple, but the productivity is low and the machine is extremely slow
Solution Approach 1:
The conveyor system is divided into multiple independent transporters (first and second transporters) that can operate separately. Each transporter has its own gripping organs and can be controlled independently, allowing parallel processing of multiple containers without requiring a complete redesign of the entire conveyor system.
Solution Approach 2:
The conveyor system implements dynamic control where the first and second transporters can operate with different motion patterns. The first transporter can move continuously while the second operates in steps, or vice versa, allowing the system to adapt to different operational requirements and optimize productivity without increasing construction complexity.
2Productivity
If multiple operating organs are provided at each station to act simultaneously on multiple containers, then productivity increases proportionally, but the construction complexity increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple gripping organs are grouped into batteries that are constrained to move together on the same transporter. This merging approach allows multiple containers to be handled simultaneously while sharing common support structures and control mechanisms, increasing productivity without proportionally increasing construction complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The transporters and gripping organs are designed to perform multiple functions. The same transporter structure can accommodate different numbers of gripping organs, and the system can operate in various modes (continuous or step-driven) depending on the operational requirements, providing versatility without requiring separate specialized components for each function.
3Adaptability or versatility
If a synchro-dynamic transporter is used to link machines with different drive types, then the interface between continuous and step-driven lines is improved, but intermediate stations cannot be provided
Solution Approach 1:
The conveyor system acts as an intermediary between machines with different drive types. By providing multiple transporters that can operate in different modes, the system mediates between continuous and step-driven requirements, allowing intermediate stations to be added without compromising interface compatibility or increasing excessive complexity.
4Reliability
If the pause period is calibrated on the basis of the filling operation time, then the filling station operates efficiently, but the overall machine speed becomes extremely slow
Solution Approach 1:
While one transporter pauses to allow filling operations to complete reliably, the other transporter continues to move and prepare containers. This continuous operation of at least one transporter ensures that the filling station receives containers continuously without interruption, maintaining both reliability and productivity without requiring the entire machine to slow down.
Data Source
AI summary
The multiple conveyor is associated to an automatic machine for filling containers, and moves the containers through an inlet station, a filling station, a capping station and an outlet station. The multiple conveyor comprises: two transporters developing along a ring-wound trajectory which includes the stations; four batteries each formed by a predetermined number of gripping organs provided to receive and grip a same predetermined number of containers, the batteries being arranged along the trajectory and constrained, in pairs, to respective drive groups, in such a way that the batteries of one pair are intercalated with those of the other pair, and distanced, with respect to the other pair by dynamically variable amounts; control and command organs, suited to managing the transporters independently one from the other, based on dynamically variable parameters, in agreement with the motion required from time to time by the stations occupied by the respective batteries of gripping organs (3).