Row-Forming Device for Stable Bottle Handling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing bottle handling technologies struggle to efficiently handle bottles with non-standard necks or irregular shapes, as conventional grippers often fail to grip these bottles reliably, leading to instability and handling issues, especially for bottles with small bases and tall profiles.
Innovation Solution
A row-forming device and corresponding process that uses a transport device with multiple parallel conveyor belts and a layer conveyor to pick up and separate bottle layers, featuring adjustable speeds and a guide strip for reliable orientation and positioning, along with a turning device to correct misoriented bottles, ensuring stable handling of bottles with challenging shapes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If conventional grippers are used to handle bottles, then bottles with standard necks can be gripped, but bottles with non-standard necks or irregular shapes cannot be gripped reliably
Solution Approach 1:
The gripper system is divided into multiple independent gripping elements (fingers) that can be individually positioned and controlled. Each finger can be independently adjusted to adapt to different bottle shapes, allowing the system to handle various bottle types reliably without requiring a completely different gripper design for each bottle configuration.
Solution Approach 2:
The gripper employs dynamic adjustment capabilities where the gripping elements can move and reposition themselves during the handling process. This dynamic behavior allows the gripper to adapt to irregular bottle shapes and maintain reliable contact points, transforming a static gripping mechanism into a flexible system that can accommodate diverse bottle geometries.
2Length of moving object
If bottles with small bases and tall profiles are handled, then bottle height is increased, but positional stability deteriorates causing bottles to fall over
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary positioning actions before the bottles are transported. The row-forming device pre-arranges bottles in stable configurations with proper spacing and orientation, ensuring that even tall bottles with small bases maintain positional stability throughout subsequent handling operations by establishing a stable base configuration in advance.
Solution Approach 2:
A support structure or guide mechanism acts as an intermediary between the gripper and the bottle base. This intermediary element provides additional stabilization points that compensate for the small bottle base area, preventing tall bottles from falling over during handling by distributing support forces across multiple contact points.
3Shape
If bottles with irregular cross-sectional shapes are handled, then bottle shape complexity is increased, but orientation and alignment in rows become difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The row-forming device incorporates asymmetric guide elements and positioning features that are specifically designed to match the asymmetric cross-sectional shapes of irregular bottles. These asymmetric guides engage with corresponding features on the bottle surfaces, automatically orienting bottles in the correct rotational position and maintaining precise alignment as they are arranged in rows.
Solution Approach 2:
The system employs optical sensors or vision systems that detect geometric features (analogous to color detection in other applications) on the bottle surfaces. These sensors identify the orientation and shape characteristics of irregular bottles, providing feedback control that adjusts positioning mechanisms to achieve precise row alignment despite the complex cross-sectional geometries.
Data Source
AI summary
A row-forming device (10) together with processes form a bottle row (8) from a bottle layer (7). The row-forming device (10) is configured to pick up and transport away, in rows, the respectively frontmost layer row (61) of the bottle layer (7) moved in a conveying direction (60), in a transverse transport direction (72). One or more layer conveyors (59) moves the bottle row (7) in a conveying direction (60) and adjoins the transport device (62), which has a plurality of parallel conveyor belts (63, 66) that extend in the transport direction (72) and are driven independently and also exhibit mutually different transport speeds. The transport device (62) has a guide strip (68) oriented obliquely to the transport direction (72). The guide strip (68) extends over a part of the conveyor belts (63, 66) and is arranged downstream of the layer conveyor (59) in the transport direction (72).