Tuft Picker Cover Tool Dynamics for Non-Standard Filament Picking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current brush-making machines struggle to process non-standard filaments, such as X-shaped, tapered, or super-thin filaments, leading to issues like splicing problems, incorrect picking, and mechanical stress, which affects the quality and safety of toothbrushes.
Innovation Solution
A tuft picker design with two spaced parts and a cover tool that includes a hook, allowing the picker eye to open and close, securely storing filaments and reducing mechanical abrasion, enabling the picking of a predefined number of filaments, including non-standard types.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If standard tuft pickers are used for non-standard filaments, then the picking process can be maintained, but mechanical stress and damage to filaments increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The cover tool is designed to be movable between a first position (open) and a second position (closed), allowing the picker eye to dynamically adjust its state. This dynamic mechanism enables the picker to adapt to different filament types by opening during the picking motion to minimize stress, and closing after pickup to secure the filaments, thereby resolving the contradiction between processing versatility and reducing mechanical damage.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the physical state parameter of the picker eye from a fixed open/closed configuration to a dynamically adjustable one. By controlling the cover tool's position, the picker eye can transition between open and closed states, allowing optimization of the picking process for non-standard filaments while minimizing mechanical stress during the actual pickup operation.
2Ease of operation
If the picker eye remains open during the picking process, then filaments can be easily accessed, but mechanical abrasion and wear on filaments increase
Solution Approach 1:
The cover tool is positioned in the first (open) configuration before the picking motion begins, allowing easy access to filaments. During the picking process, the cover tool transitions to the second (closed) configuration after the filaments are secured, thereby protecting them from mechanical abrasion. This preliminary positioning and subsequent transition resolves the contradiction between ease of access and protection from abrasion.
3Productivity
If non-standard filaments are processed with conventional pickers, then production can continue, but splicing of filaments occurs causing safety issues
Solution Approach 1:
The dynamic cover tool mechanism allows the picker eye to open during the picking motion to capture non-standard filaments without causing splicing, and then close to secure them properly. This dynamic operation enables continuous production while preventing the formation of sharp edges and spliced filaments that would otherwise occur with conventional fixed-picker designs, thereby eliminating safety hazards.
Data Source
AI summary
A tuft picker for a brush-making machine for automated production of brushes, such as toothbrushes, which is adapted to remove filaments from a filament container. The tuft picker comprises two parts. Each of the two parts comprises at least one picker eye for taking up a predefined number of loose filaments from the filament container. These picker eyes comprise an opening which can be opened and closed by moving the cover tool from a first position into a second position during one working stroke.