Vibrating Plate Aligns Packaging Blanks
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Solution Overview
Problem
In carton-based packaging systems, blanks often become misaligned and stuck together during transportation and loading, leading to entanglement issues and challenges in high-speed fetching without interruptions.
Innovation Solution
A device with a vibrating plate element suspended by springs or air-driven vibrators aligns blanks by applying a small force, and a rotary feeder with a gripper system rotates to fetch and release blanks, ensuring alignment and separation, facilitating high-speed operation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If blanks are transported and loaded into a magazine, then the packaging process can proceed, but the blanks become misaligned and stuck together causing entanglement
Solution Approach 1:
A vibrating plate element is used to apply vibrations to the blanks in the magazine. The vibrations cause the blanks to shift and separate from each other, preventing them from sticking together and becoming entangled. This mechanical vibration directly addresses the harmful effect of blanks sticking during transportation and loading.
Solution Approach 2:
The vibrating plate element acts as an intermediary between the magazine and the blanks. It mediates the interaction by providing controlled vibrations that prevent direct contact and sticking between blank surfaces, thereby eliminating the entanglement problem while maintaining reliable alignment.
2Productivity
If blanks are fetched at high speeds, then productivity increases, but alignment issues and interruptions increase
Solution Approach 1:
The vibrating plate element performs preliminary alignment action on the blanks before they are fetched from the magazine. By pre-aligning the blanks and preventing them from sticking together beforehand, the system enables high-speed fetching operations without interruptions caused by misalignment or entanglement issues.
Solution Approach 2:
The vibration applied to the blanks is continuous during the storage and fetching process. This continuous action ensures that blanks remain aligned and separated throughout the entire fetching operation, enabling sustained high-speed operation without interruptions while maintaining reliable blank availability.
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
The solution effectively aligns and separates blanks, enabling robust and efficient fetching at high speeds, reducing entanglement and interruptions, and ensuring accurate positioning for packaging processes.
Implementation Method 1
The plate element and/or the vibrating means may be resiliently suspended in relation to the magazine, for example by means of a spring means
Implementation Method 2
The spring means may in turn comprise any one from the group consisting of a spring, a spring plate, a rubber band, a spring wire, wire connected to a spring, and a roll of spring-loaded coiled wire
Implementation Method 3
The vibrating means are suspended in two parallel spring plates, located at a distance from each other, to allow movement in only one direction, and may comprise an air driven vibrator
Implementation Method 4
The vibrating means may comprise an air driven vibrator
Implementation Method 5
The vibration direction of the plate element may be perpendicular to a normal direction of the blanks. When the plate element comes into contact with the blanks, any potentially unaligned blanks in the magazine will be aligned
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a device (1) and method for aligning blanks (2) in a magazine (3) holding a number of blanks (2), each blank (2) being a sleeve shaped piece of packaging material folded planar. The device (1) comprises a plate element (4), and a vibrating means (5) connected to said plate element (4) to vibrate said plate element (4) in relation to said magazine (3), such that said plate element (4) comes into contact with an edge of any unaligned blanks in said magazine in order to align said unaligned blanks. The invention also relates to an apparatus (100) and method for fetching a blank (2) from a magazine (3) holding a number of blanks (2).