Threaded Rod Spacing Adjustment for Gripping Heads
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing industrial packaging line equipment struggles to precisely adjust to different product sizes, leading to potential product drops, breakages, or unseized products due to imprecision in spacing and pitch adaptation, particularly in gripping heads that handle products from above.
Innovation Solution
A shaft or threaded rod assembly is used to adjust the spacing between blocks, where one block acts as a screw head and the other as a nut, allowing for precise control of the distance between blocks through rotational movement, ensuring uniform spacing and pitch adaptation for various product sizes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a pantograph solution is used to adjust corridor width, then the corridors can be adjusted to different product sizes, but the spacing precision is insufficient for gripping applications
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical pantograph linkage system with a threaded rod and nut assembly. The threaded connection provides precise metric control of spacing through rotational movement, eliminating the geometric approximation errors inherent in pantograph mechanisms while maintaining adjustability across different product sizes.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the control parameter from geometric linkage ratios to threaded rod pitch and rotation angle. By controlling the rotation of the threaded rod, the spacing between blocks can be precisely adjusted in metric increments, providing both wide adaptability and high precision simultaneously.
2Manufacturing precision
If lockable jacks are used for spacing adjustment, then precise positioning can be achieved, but the device becomes expensive, complicated to control, and heavy
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple independent jack mechanisms into a single integrated threaded rod system. One threaded rod controls the spacing between multiple blocks simultaneously through a common nut assembly, reducing the number of control elements from multiple to one while maintaining precise positioning capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The threaded rod assembly serves multiple functions: it provides precise spacing adjustment, maintains parallelism between blocks, and enables synchronized movement of multiple blocks. This multi-functionality eliminates the need for separate mechanisms for each function, simplifying the overall device.
3Ease of operation
If individual jack mechanisms are used for each block pair, then precise independent control is possible, but the overall device weight and cost increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple spacing control functions into a single threaded rod mechanism that simultaneously controls the spacing between multiple blocks. The common nut assembly allows one threaded rod to coordinate the positions of multiple blocks, dramatically reducing total mechanism weight while maintaining synchronized control.
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 solution provides a precise, cost-effective, and lightweight adjustment mechanism that ensures accurate spacing and pitch adaptation, reducing the risk of product damage and improving handling efficiency in industrial packaging lines.
Implementation Method 1
The invention proposes to ensure the spacing between two successive elements using a threaded shaft or rod, thus reproducing a screw-nut type assembly, where one of the two elements forms the screw head, the other forming the nut.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
The invention relates to an adjustment device (1), comprising at least two side-by-side blocks (2), movable relative to each other in an extension direction (11) and intended to cooperate, directly or indirectly, with products (7). This device is characterized in that it comprises a drive means (4) for adjusting the relative position of at least two blocks (2), said drive means (4) comprising, for each pair of two successive blocks (2), a threaded shaft (3) mounted in one of the two blocks (2) and held axially therein and free to rotate, cooperating with the other block (2) at its thread. The invention also relates to a gripping head and a conveying means using this solution, as well as a corresponding method.