Tapered Conveyor Sprocket Teeth to Resist Material Buildup
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Solution Overview
Problem
Positively-driven conveyor belts experience material buildup between sprocket teeth and other surfaces, leading to improper engagement and operational issues such as belt slipping or skipping, which existing sprockets fail to adequately prevent.
Innovation Solution
A sprocket design featuring a hub, webbing, and teeth with varying thicknesses and tapered profiles to inhibit material buildup, including through holes and curved bases to facilitate material flow away from the sprocket surfaces, ensuring proper engagement and reducing wear.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If material buildup is allowed to occur on sprocket surfaces, then the sprocket structure remains simple and easy to manufacture, but engagement between the conveyor belt and sprocket teeth deteriorates, causing belt slipping or skipping
Solution Approach 1:
The sprocket tooth is divided into multiple surfaces with different orientations: a first surface facing the conveyor belt, a second surface facing away from the belt, and a third surface connecting them. This segmentation allows each surface to serve a specific function - the first surface for engagement, the second surface for material runoff, and the third surface for structural connection, thereby preventing material buildup while maintaining reliable engagement.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If the sprocket tooth thickness is increased to prevent material buildup, then material resistance improves, but the weight of the sprocket increases
Solution Approach 1:
The sprocket tooth is designed with non-uniform thickness distribution and varying surface orientations along its length. The tooth has greater thickness at the base for structural strength and material resistance, while tapering toward the tip to reduce overall weight. The different surface orientations (first, second, and third surfaces) provide localized functionality for material management without requiring uniform thickness throughout the tooth structure.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If the sprocket tooth is designed with complex multi-surface geometry to prevent material buildup, then material buildup resistance improves, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The sprocket tooth geometry is defined by specific dimensional parameters including the orientations of the first, second, and third surfaces relative to each other, the thickness distribution along the tooth length, and the radius of curvature at the tooth root. By optimizing these parameters, the design achieves effective material buildup prevention through the multi-surface geometry while maintaining manufacturability through systematic parameter control rather than arbitrary complex shapes.
Data Source
AI summary
A sprocket configured for use with a conveyor belt and capable of resisting material buildup up is disclosed. The sprocket includes a sprocket body including a hub, a webbing, and a plurality of teeth. In one form, at least one tooth of the plurality of teeth defines a thickness in an axial direction that varies between an inner portion and an outer portion of the tooth. In another form, at least one tooth extends radially from a sprocket root near the webbing, the sprocket root including a curved base that extends axially away from the webbing to a lateral surface of the at least one sprocket tooth. In yet another form, a hub height is greater than a tooth thickness and the tooth thickness is greater than a web thickness.