Star Wheel Container Conveyor Spacing Mechanism

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing container conveyor systems cause damage to containers and their equipment features due to relative movements during the conversion of densely packed container flows into spaced flows, particularly when forming bundles from filled and sealed containers.

Innovation Solution

A container conveyor system that forms a gentle, spaced container flow using carriers on the forming section without feed screws, utilizing pressing heads and a transport section with adhesive applications to separate and compress container groups, ensuring containers are spaced correctly for treatment without damage.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of operation

If feed screws are used to space containers on the conveyor, then containers can be transferred with required spacing to receptacles, but relative movements between the feed screw and containers cause damage to containers and equipment features

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecontainer spacing and transfer capabilityVSAvoiddamage to containers and equipment features

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The patent removes the feed screw mechanism from the container conveyor system entirely. Instead of using a feed screw to push and space containers, the system uses a star wheel with receptacles that positively index containers through gravitational flow and geometric constraints, eliminating the harmful relative movements between feed screw threads and container surfaces.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The star wheel with its receptacles serves as an intermediary mechanism between the densely packed container inlet and the downstream processing equipment. The receptacles temporarily hold and space containers at precise intervals, allowing smooth transfer without direct contact from aggressive feeding mechanisms, thereby protecting container labels and features.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Productivity

If containers are conveyed in a densely packed flow, then space efficiency is improved, but conversion to spaced flow requires mechanisms that cause shearing and relative movements damaging to containers

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecontainer flow density and space utilizationVSAvoidshearing forces and relative movements damaging containers

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The star wheel receptacles are pre-positioned at specific angular intervals to create the spaced container flow pattern before containers enter the downstream processing area. Containers naturally gravitate into the receptacles as they pass, and the receptacle geometry pre-establishes the correct spacing and orientation, eliminating the need for last-minute spacing actions that would require harmful shearing forces.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentEP3044137B1Method and container conveyor for rearranging a container flow, and device having same

Publication Date: 2019.01.02 KHS GMBH

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AI summary

A method for rearranging a single-track container flow (5.1) conveyed via a conveying segment (33) into a rearranged container flow (5.2) further conveyed via a star-shaped conveyor (7), in which rearranged conveyor flow the containers (1), which are each arranged in a container receptacle (7.1) of the star-shaped conveyor (7), are spaced from each other by a separation distance that corresponds to the distance between the container receptacles (7.1).