Strap Guide Lance Lightweight Design for High Speed
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing strapping machines with strap guide lances require heavy, rigid components to maintain stability, limiting traversing speed and acceleration due to the need for a large overall height, which results in low cycle rates and increased operational time.
Innovation Solution
The strap guide lance is designed with a U-shaped carrier profile and an asymmetrical stiffening angle, allowing for a lightweight yet stiff construction using thin-walled profiles and laser welding, reducing mass and enabling higher speeds and accelerations while maintaining stability, and incorporates passage openings for debris removal and adjustable flap elements for tensioning.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If the strap guide lance is made heavy and rigid to prevent sagging and vibration, then stability is improved, but traversing speed and acceleration are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The strap guide lance is constructed from thin-walled profiles instead of heavy solid sections, achieving the required stability through optimized geometric structure rather than mass. The thin-walled construction provides sufficient rigidity to prevent sagging and vibration while dramatically reducing the weight that limits traversing speed and acceleration.
Solution Approach 2:
The strap guide lance employs composite construction combining thin-walled profiles with strategic reinforcement elements. This composite approach creates a structure that is both lightweight and sufficiently rigid, resolving the contradiction between stability and speed by distributing structural requirements across different material components.
2Stability of the object's composition
If the strap guide lance is made heavy and rigid to prevent sagging and vibration, then stability is improved, but acceleration is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The thin-walled profile construction reduces the mass of the strap guide lance while maintaining structural integrity through optimized wall thickness and geometric design. This mass reduction directly improves acceleration capability while the carefully designed wall thickness prevents sagging and vibration during high-speed operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The strap guide lance is divided into multiple thin-walled structural segments rather than a single heavy component. This segmentation allows each section to be optimized for local structural requirements while reducing overall mass, enabling higher acceleration without compromising stability.
3Strength
If the overall height of the strap guide lance is increased to achieve required rigidity, then rigidity is improved, but the minimum height of the space between pallet top and skids must be increased
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of increasing the overall height of the strap guide lance to achieve rigidity, the invention uses thin-walled profiles with optimized cross-sectional geometry. This approach provides the necessary rigidity through structural efficiency rather than increased dimensions, allowing the lance to fit within the limited space between pallet top and skids.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention transitions from solving the rigidity problem in the vertical dimension (increasing height) to solving it in the cross-sectional dimension (optimizing wall thickness and profile geometry). This dimensional shift allows the strap guide lance to achieve required rigidity without increasing its overall height, maintaining compatibility with standard pallet dimensions.
4Weight of moving object
If thin-walled profiles are used to reduce mass, then weight is reduced and speed is improved, but structural stability may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The thin-walled profiles are designed with optimized wall thickness and cross-sectional geometry that provides sufficient structural stability despite the reduced material quantity. The geometric design creates high moment of inertia relative to the mass, ensuring that the lightweight construction maintains the required structural stability during high-speed traversing and acceleration.
Data Source
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AI summary
In the strapping machine (10) according to the invention, in which a strap guiding lance is inserted under the packaged goods through a penetrating opening provided in a pallet in order to create a circumferential strap channel into which a strap (12) can be shot to produce a strapping, a particularly strong, but also lightweight design of the strap guiding lance (23) is proposed, allowing rapid and precise insertion of the lance.