Wear-Tolerant Stacked Rollers for Conveyor Diversion
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conveyor belts with fixed rollers experience wear that deteriorates contact between bottom and top rollers, leading to inefficient object displacement and diverting capabilities.
Innovation Solution
The use of vertically-stacked roller sets with bottom rollers extending below the conveyor belt and top rollers above, where the bottom rollers are driven to rotate in one direction causing the top rollers to rotate in the opposite direction, allowing for high-angle diversion and displacement of objects, with the option of angled or parallel rotation to the belt's direction.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If fixed stacked rollers are used to propel objects rearward on the conveyor belt, then object displacement capability is improved, but contact between rollers deteriorates due to wear
Solution Approach 1:
The bottom roller is made floating rather than fixed, allowing it to move vertically in response to wear. As the rollers wear down, the bottom roller automatically adjusts its position downward to maintain proper contact with both the bearing surface and the top roller, thereby maintaining reliable contact despite wear over time.
2Adaptability or versatility
If bottom rollers are driven to rotate causing top rollers to rotate in opposite direction, then high-angle diversion is achieved, but wear deteriorates contact between rollers
Solution Approach 1:
The floating bottom roller design enables the system to maintain its high-angle diversion capability while compensating for wear. The bottom roller's ability to move vertically ensures that the rotational contact between bottom and top rollers is maintained even as material is removed from the roller surfaces, preserving the diverter's effectiveness throughout its service life.
Solution Approach 2:
The bottom roller automatically adjusts its own position in response to wear without external intervention. As the rollers wear, the bottom roller sinks downward on its own to maintain contact, effectively self-compensating for the deterioration and maintaining the diverter's performance.
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 configuration enables efficient transverse and rearward displacement of objects with high diverting angles, maintaining effective object handling even as rollers wear, by ensuring consistent contact and rotation between the rollers.
Implementation Method 1
The roller at the bottom of the stack rolls on a bearing surface underlying the conveyor belt as the conveyor belt advances along a conveyor. The forward rotation of the rolling bottom roller contacting the top roller in the stack causes the top roller to rotate in the opposite direction to propel objects conveyed atop the rollers to be pushed rearward on the conveyor belt.
Data Source
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AI summary
A conveyor belt having multiple roller sets, each roller set including a first roller (204) and a second roller (202), the first roller (204) being movable into contact with the second roller (202) so that driving of one of the rollers in a first angular direction causes rotation of the other roller in a second, opposite angular direction. The invention also relates to the module of the belt itself and the conveyor comprising a belt with a plurality of such modules and a bearing surface that makes the first roller (204) rotate and move towards the second roller (202).