Tissue Pick-Up Head with Cantilever Chains for Sliding Products
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing pick-up systems for tissue products are inefficient for non-compressible or sliding products, require bulky and heavy machinery, and struggle with high cycle rates.
Innovation Solution
A pick-up head with a support connected to a robotic arm, featuring a first sliding guide and a pair of compacting means, and unidirectional chains that slide between engaging and disengaging positions to create a cantilever support for picking up tissue products, ensuring secure movement without compression.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If grippers are used to pick up and compress rows of tissue products, then products can be moved and compacted, but the system is ineffective for non-compressible or sliding products and cannot achieve high cycle rates
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of compressing products from the sides using grippers, the invention inverts the approach by inserting forks from below between conveyor rollers to lift and support the product layer. This inversion allows handling of non-compressible and sliding products that cannot be effectively gripped or compressed from the sides.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention introduces an intermediary mechanical unit formed by two opposite forks that insert between conveyor rollers. These forks act as a mediator to lift and support the product layer from below, enabling secure handling without direct side compression or gripping, thus solving the problem with non-compressible and sliding products.
2Productivity
If layer type pick-up with heavy grippers is used to move entire layers of products, then high cycle rates can be achieved, but the pick-up machine becomes very bulky and heavy
Solution Approach 1:
The invention segments the pick-up mechanism into a lighter mechanical unit with two opposite forks instead of using a single heavy gripper structure. This segmentation allows the system to achieve layer pick-up capability with reduced weight and bulk by distributing the lifting function across multiple lighter components that insert between conveyor rollers.
3Adaptability or versatility
If bottom layer pick-up with forks is used to support products from below, then non-compressible and sliding products can be handled, but the system requires complex mechanical units and has limited versatility
Solution Approach 1:
The mechanical unit with two opposite forks is designed to perform multiple functions: inserting between conveyor rollers, lifting product layers, supporting non-compressible products, and enabling high cycle rate operation. This universal design handles various product types (compressible, non-compressible, sliding) through a single versatile mechanism, reducing the need for multiple specialized devices.
Data Source
AI summary
A pick-up head for groups of tissue products including a support which can be connected to a robotic arm. The support has a first sliding guide in which a first pair of compacting means runs, between an open configuration and a compacting configuration. The pick-up head also includes a plurality of unidirectional chains, wherein the unidirectional chains are positioned outside each compacting means of the first pair and slide between an engaging position and a disengaging position. The pick-up head also includes a plurality of guides associated with respective unidirectional chains, in such a way that the unidirectional chains protrude beyond an end edge of a horizontal stretch of the guide in such a way as to create a cantilever support designed to support the bottom of the group of tissue products during its movement.