Pivotal Flight Conveyor with Scraper for Sticky Material
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing flight conveyors are unsuitable for conveying sticky, piece-formed products in the food industry as they often result in material loss due to adhesion to conveyor surfaces, and lack effective and stable cleaning solutions.
Innovation Solution
The flights are pivotally mounted on shafts with rails extending between idler and drive wheels, allowing slides to support them perpendicularly, and a scraper at the drive wheel removes adhered material, enabling self-cleaning and preventing material from sliding down.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If flights are stationary on conveyor, then structure is simple, but material adheres to flights causing waste
Solution Approach 1:
The flights are made pivotally mounted on shafts instead of being stationary, allowing them to dynamically adjust their position. This enables the flights to pivot to a cleaning position where material can be removed, and to a conveying position for normal operation, thus resolving the adhesion problem while maintaining operational effectiveness.
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates self-cleaning functionality through the pivotal flight mechanism that allows material to be removed from the flights during operation. This self-service capability eliminates the need for external cleaning devices and continuously prevents material accumulation that would lead to waste.
2Productivity
If flights are angularly displaceable relative to chains, then material can be pushed forwards, but piece-formed products are destroyed
Solution Approach 1:
The conveyor system differentiates between the upper row part and lower row part, with flights specifically positioned on the upper row to provide vertical support. This local differentiation allows bulk material to be pushed forward while individual piece-formed products on the upper row are supported and protected from deformation.
Solution Approach 2:
The conveyor is divided into distinct functional zones: the upper row part with flights for supporting and conveying individual pieces, and the lower row part for return. This segmentation allows different conveying modes to coexist, protecting delicate products while maintaining overall system productivity.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If cleaner device is intermittently operating, then cleaning function is provided, but operation is unstable and result is unsatisfactory
Solution Approach 1:
The pivotal flight mechanism enables continuous cleaning action as material is removed during every rotation cycle when flights pivot to the cleaning position. This continuous action replaces intermittent cleaning, providing stable and reliable operation with consistently satisfactory results.
4Loss of substance
If flights are pivotally mounted with slides on rails, then material loss is reduced, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The slides on rails serve multiple functions: they guide the pivotal motion of flights, enable the cleaning action, and maintain proper flight positioning during conveying. This multi-functionality justifies the added components by providing several benefits from a single mechanical arrangement.
Data Source
AI summary
A flight conveyor for conveying material includes a frame, drive and idler wheel(s) rotatably mounted on the frame, segments for supporting the material, shafts for pivotally interconnecting the segments to an endless row which has an upper row and a lower row running, during operation, over the drive and idler wheel(s) and a number of conveyor flights for bringing the material along in the conveying direction. A scraper is arranged at the drive wheel for successively scraping off adhered material from segments and flights such that the conveyor can be used for conveying products tending to adhere to the surfaces of the segments and the flights since the adhered products are automatically removed by the scraper.