Offset Chain Bucket Transport System Curved Section Orientation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional combination weighing machines experience significant wear and noise issues due to the use of rails or guides to control the orientation of carriages on curved sections, requiring frequent maintenance and machine stops.
Innovation Solution
A transport system utilizing horizontally offset endless chains and articulated carriages connected by individual arms, with castor wheels and contact elements that mesh to control the inclination of carriages on curved sections, eliminating the need for fixed guides and reducing mechanical interference and noise.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If rails or guides are used to control the orientation of carriages on curved sections, then the orientation control is improved, but wear and noise increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the harmful rails or guides from the system and replaces them with a different mechanism. The castor wheels with contact elements provide orientation control without the continuous sliding contact that causes wear and noise, effectively extracting the problematic component while maintaining the necessary function.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the sliding mechanical contact system (rails/guides with followers) with a rolling contact system (castor wheels). This substitution changes the type of mechanical interaction from sliding friction to rolling friction, significantly reducing wear and noise while maintaining orientation control on curved sections.
2Stability of the object's composition
If rails or guides with sliding followers are used, then orientation control is achieved, but maintenance work and machine stops increase
Solution Approach 1:
By removing the rails and guides from the system, the patent eliminates the components that require frequent maintenance. The castor wheels on the carriages provide the necessary orientation control without the need for separate fixed guides, reducing maintenance points and machine stoppages.
Solution Approach 2:
The carriages equip themselves with castor wheels that provide the necessary orientation control function. Instead of relying on external rails or guides that need maintenance, each carriage has its own self-contained orientation control mechanism that reduces dependency on fixed infrastructure requiring regular maintenance.
3Object-generated harmful factors
If horizontally offset chains with individual arms are used, then mechanical interference is reduced, but orientation control on curved sections becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces dynamic orientation control through castor wheels that can rotate and adapt to the curved path. The contact elements on the castor wheels dynamically engage with the carriage to provide the necessary inclination control during curved sections, allowing the system to maintain orientation control while accommodating the horizontally offset chain configuration.
Solution Approach 2:
The castor wheels act as an intermediary mechanism between the horizontally offset chains and the carriage orientation control. They provide the necessary mechanical interaction to control carriage inclination during curved sections without requiring the chains themselves to directly control orientation, thus reducing mechanical interference while maintaining control functionality.
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3
Figure 4a~4b
AI summary
A transport system (1) designed to transport buckets in a combination weighing machine that uses two endless chain drives (2, 3) horizontally offset at a distance (A), the system (1) comprising carriages to carry the buckets which extend between, and are joined to, the chains (2, 3) such that the simultaneous and coordinated motion of the chains (2, 3)n nmoves the carriages along a closed path with curved sections, the system (1) comprising control gears (10) for the inclination of the carriages on the curved sections of the path, which comprise castor wheels (72a, 72b, 73) actuated in a coordinated fashion with the chains (2, 3) around both turn axes (n), at least one of which placed in the vicinity of each curved section linking the carriages and prepared to mesh with contact elements (11) arranged for such purposes on the carriages.