Rivet Feeding Apparatus With Flexing Fingers
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current rivet feeding systems for self-piercing and flow drill rivets are cumbersome, prone to environmental factors like dirt, carbon build-up, clogging, dust, and sparks, and require complex actuators, making them unsuitable for compact spaces.
Innovation Solution
A compact rivet feeding apparatus with a feeding block featuring flexing feed fingers and a momentum-based retention system that uses inner guiding diameter portions and stop points to securely hold rivets in place, allowing them to pass between the fingers due to their shape and size, preventing complete flexing and ensuring robust retention.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional rivet feeding systems are used, then rivets can be fed, but the systems are cumbersome, sensitive to environmental factors, and require complex actuators
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces complex mechanical actuators and feeding mechanisms with a gravity-based passive feeding system. Rivets are fed through a track by gravity alone, eliminating the need for motors, sensors, and complex control systems that are sensitive to environmental factors like dirt, dust, and sparks.
Solution Approach 2:
The rivet feeding system is self-regulating through the design of the track and feed fingers. The feed fingers automatically flex and return to their original position without external actuation, and the track geometry itself controls the rivet flow, making the system self-service and insensitive to environmental contamination.
2Volume of moving object
If compact feeding apparatus is used, then space is saved, but robust retention means for rivets is harder to achieve
Solution Approach 1:
The feed fingers are designed to be flexible rather than rigid, allowing them to dynamically adapt to rivet placement. The fingers flex outward when rivets are inserted and return to their original position to retain the rivet, providing reliable retention in a compact space without requiring complex active control mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The feed fingers function as flexible elements that can bend and return to their original shape. This flexibility allows the compact feeding apparatus to provide robust retention through elastic deformation of the fingers themselves, eliminating the need for larger, more complex retention mechanisms.
3Device complexity
If feed fingers are made flexible to allow rivet passage, then compact design is achieved, but control over rivet positioning may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The feeding track is segmented into different zones with varying geometries. The track includes a feeding zone, a transition zone, and a retention zone with stop points at specific positions. This segmentation allows the flexible feed fingers to provide precision positioning in the retention zone while maintaining simplicity in the feeding zone.
Solution Approach 2:
The track geometry acts as an intermediary between the flexible feed fingers and the rivets. The track guides and constrains the rivets through its geometry, ensuring precise positioning and orientation as they pass through the feeding apparatus, while the flexible fingers provide the necessary retention force.
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 provides a reliable, compact, and robust rivet feeding system that is not sensitive to environmental factors, ensuring consistent rivet feeding and welding performance within limited spaces without the need for complex mechanisms.
Implementation Method 1
a momentum-based retention system that uses inner guiding diameter portions and stop points to securely hold rivets in place, allowing them to pass between the fingers due to their shape and size
Data Source
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AI summary
A fastener feed apparatus (10) includes a mounting portion (14) and a feed portion (12) attached movably thereto. The feed portion (12) includes a feed body (16) having first and second ends (18, 20) and an internal track (27) extending therethrough. The internal track (27) is sized and shaped to convey a fastener (R) through the feed body (16). The feed portion (12) also includes a feeding block (28) attached to the second end (20) of the feed body (16) and including a body (30) and a pair of feed fingers (38, 40), each of which includes a first end (44) attached to the body (30) and a second end (46). A track (54) is formed between the feed fingers (38, 40), is sized and shaped to convey the fastener (R) from its first end to its second end, and is contiguous with the internal track (27) of the feed body (16). The second end of the track (54) includes a retention point. The feed fingers (38, 40) are sized and shaped to retain the fastener (R) at the retention point.