Roller Retaining Chain Dual Guide Face Anti-Tilt Design
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional roller retaining chains experience roller tilting and vibration due to single contact points during movement, which affects the smooth operation of the sliding base in linear moving mechanisms.
Innovation Solution
The roller retaining chain features a carrier belt with inclined guide faces on retainers, allowing rollers to be contacted and pushed by two guide faces, preventing tilting and ensuring even force distribution, and utilizing tilt injection molding for manufacturing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If a single contacting surface is used on the retainer to push rollers forward, then the structure is simple and easy to manufacture, but the rollers tilt and generate vibration during movement
Solution Approach 1:
The single contacting surface is segmented into two separate guide faces (first guide face and second guide face) that contact opposite sides of the roller. This segmentation allows each face to independently guide the roller, preventing tilting while maintaining manufacturing simplicity through the existing tilt injection molding process
Solution Approach 2:
The guide faces are positioned at specific locations on the retainer (on opposite sides of the hole) with specific orientations (perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the rail). This local positioning and orientation optimization ensures that the contact points are strategically placed to prevent roller tilting without requiring complex overall structural changes
2Reliability
If the guide faces are positioned to contact the roller at specific locations, then roller tilting is prevented, but the manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The two guide faces are merged into a single retainer component that is manufactured as one piece using tilt injection molding. This merging approach maintains structural simplicity by avoiding separate parts while still providing the dual-contact-point guidance system needed to prevent roller tilting
Solution Approach 2:
The guide faces are positioned asymmetrically on the retainer, with each face located on opposite sides of the hole and inclined relative to the longitudinal direction. This asymmetric positioning allows the guide faces to effectively contact and guide the roller from opposite directions, preventing tilting while maintaining a simple overall structure
Data Source
AI summary
A roller retaining chain includes a carrier belt extending along a longitudinal direction and multiple holes are defined through the carrier belt so as to respectively receive a roller therein. A retainer is located between any two adjacent holes and each of the retainers includes a first part and a bottom part. The first/second part has a first/second face facing the hole. Each of the first and second faces has a guide member and each guide member has a guide face which is perpendicular to the longitudinal direction. The two respective guide faces are located on the same plane. Each of the guide faces has an inclined stop face extending therefrom so as to retain the roller in the hole. Each roller is in contact with the two guide faces to prevent from being tilt.