Non-Contact Strip Floater Layout for Meander Correction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Non-contact conveying apparatuses face challenges in stabilizing the conveyance of strip materials due to meandering and flapping, especially when meandering amounts are small, which can lead to surface defects like scratches and scraping.
Innovation Solution
A method and device that utilize a floater group to tilt the strip material by changing its height position and applying a cant roll to generate a horizontal correction force, even for small meandering amounts, using a cant roll positioned strategically between floaters and conveyance rolls to stabilize the strip material without surface damage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If a steering roll is used to forcibly correct meandering, then meandering correction capability is improved, but surface defects such as scratches and scraping occur on the strip material
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the traditional mechanical steering roll system with a gas jet system. The gas jet is injected from below the strip material to create upward pressure that tilts the strip material and generates horizontal correction force, eliminating the need for direct mechanical contact and thus preventing surface defects while maintaining meandering correction capability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs pneumatic principles by using gas jets to apply force to the strip material. The gas jet creates a pressure field that tilts the strip material and generates the necessary horizontal correction force, replacing mechanical contact-based correction methods with a non-contact pneumatic system
2Manufacturing precision
If the height of only the outermost side plate is made high, then meandering prevention is improved for large meandering amounts, but driving force for returning the strip material to the center is insufficient for small meandering amounts
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the parameter of side plate height configuration by making multiple side plates at different positions have different heights. This creates a gradient structure where side plates closer to the center have lower heights and those at the edges have higher heights, optimizing the driving force distribution for correcting various amounts of meandering and improving overall centering accuracy
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
The method effectively corrects meandering and stabilizes strip material conveyance, minimizing surface defects and ensuring accurate centering, even with minimal meandering, by using a cant roll to apply controlled horizontal forces.
Implementation Method 1
a non-contact conveying apparatus for the conveyance of a strip material at a non-contact state with the conveyance roll by using a floater which can float the strip material by a gaseous pressure
Implementation Method 2
strong contact force (friction force) works between the steering roll and the strip material
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3~4(b)
Figure 5
AI summary
In a method and a device for correcting meandering of a strip material in an apparatus that performs conveyance of the strip material at a non-contact state by floating a continuously travelling strip material by a floater group comprising one or more floaters arranged in line, the strip material is tilted by forcibly changing a height position in the widthwise direction of the strip material in at least one of a zone between the most upstream floater in the floater group and a conveyance roll located immediately upstream of such a floater, a zone between two adjacent floaters, and a zone between the most downstream floater in the floater group and a conveyance roll located immediately downstream of such a floater, whereby the height position in the widthwise direction of the strip material above the floater is changed and a static pressure applied to the strip material above the floater is changed to correct meandering thereof.