Rubber Strip Width Adaptation for Extruder Feeding
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for feeding rubber to small extruders with low extrusion rates require expensive slicing operations and intermediate storage, as they are not optimized for varying consumption capacities, leading to inefficiencies and increased costs.
Innovation Solution
A method and installation that continuously take a residue from a wide rubber strip before reaching the extruder, adapting the strip width to match the extruder's consumption rate, eliminating the need for slicing and intermediate storage by using upstream and downstream storage means and adjusting the feed rate in real-time.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a wide strip of rubber is used to feed a small extruder with low extrusion rate, then the extruder can be undersized and create less hindrance, but the strip width does not match the consumption rate requiring expensive slicing operations
Solution Approach 1:
The wide rubber strip is segmented into multiple narrower strips in real-time using a cutting device. This allows a single wide strip to feed multiple extruders with different consumption rates, eliminating the need for pre-slicing and intermediate storage while matching each extruder's specific width requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The cutting device dynamically adjusts the width of rubber strips fed to different extruders based on their real-time consumption rates. This dynamic adaptation allows the system to optimize feed width for each extruder without manual intervention or pre-processing, resolving the contradiction between extruder size and strip width matching.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the strip is sliced into multiple slices to match low extrusion rate extruders, then the feed width can be matched to consumption rate, but intermediate storage and handling operations are required
Solution Approach 1:
The cutting operation is performed preliminarily and continuously just-in-time before the rubber reaches the extruder, rather than in advance. This eliminates the need for intermediate storage and handling of sliced rubber, as the cutting happens continuously in the feed path and the slices are immediately consumed by the extruder.
Solution Approach 2:
A cutting device acts as an intermediary between the wide rubber strip and the small extruder. This intermediary continuously converts the wide strip into appropriately sized narrower strips on-demand, eliminating the need for manual slicing operations and intermediate storage facilities.
3Adaptability or versatility
If extruders of varying consumption rates are used, then production flexibility is improved, but the strip width must be continuously adjusted to match each extruder's rate
Solution Approach 1:
The cutting device is designed to serve multiple extruders with different consumption rates simultaneously. It can dynamically adjust and produce rubber strips of various widths from a single wide input strip, making the system universal and adaptable to different extruder configurations without requiring separate feeding systems for each extruder.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of the type in which a strip of rubber is moved continuously from a rubber-supplier device to a consumer device. During the continuous movement and prior to reaching the consumer device, a portion, referred to as the residue, is taken continuously from the strip of rubber. The residue is taken by continuously cutting the strip of rubber. For example, the supplier device includes upstream storage means for storing the strip of rubber from which the strip is moved toward the extruder, and downstream storage means in which the residue is stored. After the strip of rubber on the upstream storage means has been used up, the upstream and downstream storage means are swapped with each other.