Rotary Transmitter Guide Rollers for Tension-Free Line Routing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing rotary joints for robots face challenges in efficiently guiding lines, such as cables or optical fibers, over a rotatable end of a robot arm without causing mechanical stress, knotting, or tangling, while ensuring a high degree of freedom of movement and preventing deformations like kinks or blockages.
Innovation Solution
A rotary transmitter design featuring a stator with a central recess and a rotor with guide rollers at equal angular intervals, allowing a tension-free rotation of lines through ±360°, with a cable housing for organization and a clamping plate for secure fastening, preventing knotting and tangling by guiding the lines on a ring-shaped roller carrier.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a line is routed from a robot arm to a rotating part through a rotary joint, then the connection is established, but mechanical stress, knotting, or tangling of the line occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces guide rollers as intermediary elements between the line and the rotating components. These guide rollers actively guide the line through the rotation, preventing direct contact and friction between the line and the rotary joint surfaces, thereby eliminating mechanical stress and tangling while maintaining connection reliability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the physical state and arrangement of the line routing system by introducing movable guide rollers that can rotate independently. This parameter change from a fixed routing to a dynamically adjustable routing with rolling contact reduces friction and prevents the line from becoming stressed or tangled during rotation
2Reliability
If the line is guided through the rotary joint, then connection is maintained, but the line becomes deformed with kinks or blockages
Solution Approach 1:
The guide rollers serve as mediators that maintain the proper shape and routing of the line throughout the rotation. By providing a controlled path with rolling support, they prevent the line from developing kinks or blockages while ensuring continuous connection
Solution Approach 2:
The guide rollers provide a curved, rolling surface that allows the line to bend smoothly during rotation rather than creating sharp angles or kinks. The cylindrical shape of the rollers enables the line to follow a smooth arc, maintaining its integrity and preventing deformation
3Object-affected harmful factors
If guide rollers are added to guide the line, then line stress is reduced, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The guide rollers are designed to perform multiple functions simultaneously: they guide the line, reduce friction, prevent tangling, and accommodate rotation. This multi-functionality reduces the need for additional separate components, thereby limiting the increase in device complexity while effectively reducing line stress
Solution Approach 2:
The guide rollers are designed to be self-lubricating through their rolling motion, reducing the need for external lubrication systems. The rollers automatically adjust their position and orientation during rotation, providing self-regulating line guidance without requiring complex control mechanisms, thus limiting complexity increase
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 ensures minimal mechanical stress on the lines, prevents knotting and tangling, allows for a wide range of motion, and maintains the lines in an orderly state, enhancing the robustness and flexibility of the robot arm's operation by efficiently using internal space and minimizing friction.
Implementation Method 1
guiding the lines on a ring-shaped roller carrier... minimizing friction
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a rotary transmitter (10) for a robot. The rotary transmitter comprises a cylindrical stator (20) with a central recess (22) in a base and a recess (24) on a lateral surface of the stator (20), as well as a rotor (30). The rotor (30) is rotatably supported in the central recess (22) in the base and has a recess (32) on the lateral surface of the rotor (30) and at least one line (26) that is guided through the recess (24) in the lateral surface of the stator (20). The line (26) is supported at one end in the recess (32) of the lateral surface (37) of the rotor (30), wherein a plurality of guide rollers (40) is rotatably supported in an intermediate space (34) between the stator (20) and the rotor (30). The rotary transmitter further comprises a cover (50) which closes the stator (20) and a central recess (54) which accepts the end face (31) of the rotor (30), wherein the cover (50) is designed for a fixed connection to one end of a robot arm, and the rotor (30) has a torque-transmitting coupling to a drive flange on the end of the robot arm. A section (28) of the line (26) is slackly guided on an inner wall (27) of the stator (30), and the section (28) has a length so as to allow the line (26) to follow a rotation of the rotor (30) in a tension-free manner about an angle of rotation.