Tilting Joint for Loading Wagon Pick-Up
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing loading wagons face challenges in adapting to uneven ground transversely to the direction of travel, leading to unsuitable opening gaps between the pick-up and the conveyor unit, which can result in crop disruptions and blockages during transportation.
Innovation Solution
A self-loading wagon design featuring a tilting joint aligned with the pick-up's longitudinal center, allowing for independent rotary drive participation in tipping movements, coupled with a U-shaped intermediate frame and pendulum supports, ensures improved ground tracking and minimal gap maintenance between the pick-up and conveyor unit through flexible movement and adjustable jockey wheels.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the pick-up is supported on the chassis via a three-way linkage and ball joint with the opposite side leg supported via a four-bar linkage, then the pick-up can perform superimposed pan and tilt movements for improved ground tracking, but the opening gap on one side of the pick-up becomes unsuitably large in relation to the conveying channel, resulting in disruptions when transporting the crop
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the kinematic parameters of the pick-up support system by replacing the asymmetric three-way linkage and four-bar linkage with a symmetric double four-bar linkage system. This modification alters the movement characteristics to distribute tilting movements evenly on both sides, maintaining ground adaptation while preventing excessive opening gaps that disrupt crop transport.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent addresses the asymmetric problem by implementing a symmetric linkage system. The double four-bar linkage configuration creates symmetry in the pick-up support, ensuring that both sides of the pick-up undergo comparable tilting movements, thereby eliminating the unsuitable opening gap on one side that occurs with asymmetric linkage systems.
2Power
If a chain drive to the chassis is provided on the drive side, then the chain can transmit power to the pick-up, but the chain can only be twisted to a limited extent, limiting the pivoting and tipping movement of the pick-up around the ball joint center point, which is detrimental to ground adaptation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the rotary drive from the chassis and relocates it to the pick-up itself. This separation eliminates the constraint imposed by the chain drive's limited twisting capacity, allowing the pick-up to achieve greater pivoting and tipping movements for improved ground adaptation while the rotary drive independently follows the pick-up's movements.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a dynamic configuration where the rotary drive is mounted on the pick-up and moves with it, rather than being fixed to the chassis. This dynamic arrangement allows the drive system to accommodate the full range of pick-up movements without the restrictions of a rigid chain drive connection to the chassis.
3Strength
If the pick-up is mounted in a U-shaped, rigid pivoting frame with side legs mounted on a pivot axis transverse to the direction of travel, then the structure provides rigid support, but the axis of the pick-up always moves parallel to the swivel axis on the loading wagon chassis, so that ground adaptation to unevenness transverse to the direction of travel is not satisfactory
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the pick-up support system into a double four-bar linkage configuration with separate linkages on each side. This segmentation allows independent movement of each side's linkages, enabling the pick-up to adapt to transverse unevenness while maintaining overall structural support, overcoming the limitation of a single rigid pivoting frame.
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3~5
Figure 4
AI summary
The loading wagon (L) has a pick-up unit (6) braced on underground by lateral external feeler wheels (13) incorporating harvest and supplying to conveyor unit arranged in a loading wagon-chassis (3). The pick-up unit is rotated around an axis by a rotational drive (10). The pick-up unit is braced in the mounting in its axial longitudinal center in a tiltable manner.