Shutter Piece Flexure Mechanism for Food Shaping Device
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional food shaping devices face issues with dough residues due to gaps between shutter pieces, which lead to wear and increased operational challenges, including thermal expansion and excessive load on the drive unit.
Innovation Solution
The shutter piece design incorporates a flexure allowance part, such as a slit or notch, allowing the distal-end portion to flex in the opposite direction during closing, maintaining constant contact pressure and reducing wear, with optional heat release features and adjustable mechanisms to manage thermal expansion.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-generated harmful factors
If adjacent shutter pieces are brought into pressing contact to slide on each other, then the gap between shutter pieces is narrowed and dough residues are reduced, but wear of shutter pieces increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention changes the physical state of the shutter piece by introducing a flexible portion that allows controlled deformation. This enables the shutter piece to adapt its contact pressure dynamically, maintaining effective sealing against dough residues while reducing excessive wear through the flexible accommodation of surface irregularities
Solution Approach 2:
The shutter piece transitions from a rigid structure to a dynamic structure with a flexible portion that can deform during operation. This flexibility allows the shutter piece to automatically adjust its contact characteristics with adjacent pieces, maintaining optimal sealing pressure while accommodating wear and thermal expansion
2Object-generated harmful factors
If shutter pieces are pressed against each other to prevent dough residues, then contact pressure increases, but thermal expansion causes excessive load on the drive unit
Solution Approach 1:
The flexible portion changes the mechanical parameters of the shutter piece by introducing compliance into the system. This allows the contact pressure to be maintained at effective levels for preventing dough residues while the flexibility absorbs excess forces from thermal expansion, preventing excessive load transmission to the drive unit
3Object-generated harmful factors
If shutter pieces are pressed against each other to maintain sealing, then contact pressure is increased, but wear at slide portions increases and dough-residue prevention effect cannot continue long term
Solution Approach 1:
The introduction of the flexible portion changes the contact mechanics from rigid high-pressure contact to compliant contact with distributed pressure. This maintains effective sealing against dough residues while significantly reducing wear rates, enabling the dough-residue prevention effect to continue over extended operational periods
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
This design effectively minimizes dough residues, reduces wear, and maintains consistent contact pressure, thereby enhancing operational efficiency and longevity of the shutter pieces.
Implementation Method 1
a flexure allowance part that allows flexure of a distal-end side portion of the shutter piece during a closing operation of the shutter piece in an opposite direction from a closing operation direction
Implementation Method 2
because the adjacent shutter pieces rotate while being in pressing contact with each other, thermal expansion of the shutter pieces occurs when the food shaping device is operated for a long time or shapes high temperature dough
Data Source
AI summary
To provide a shutter piece in a food shaping device that is capable of opening and closing an enclosure surrounded by a plurality of shutter pieces, the shutter piece including a flexure allowance part between a rotation center position of a shutter piece and a distal end part of the shutter piece to allow flexure of a distal-end side portion of the shutter piece in the opposite direction from a closing opening direction during a closing operation of the shutter piece, in which the flexure allowance part is constituted by a slit, a cutaway part, or a hole, and the flexure allowance part includes a flexure-amount adjustment mechanism to adjust the amount of flexure of the distal-end side portion of the shutter piece.