Wire Basket Winding Fixture for Closed-Bottom Forming
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
The manual and costly process of manufacturing wire baskets with complex grid structures and open bottoms requires significant skill and time, especially for varying sizes and shapes, and often necessitates additional crimping to secure the root ball during transportation.
Innovation Solution
A device featuring a rotating spinning fixture with angled arms and a wire feed system that winds wire onto the fixture in a preselected pattern, allowing for the creation of a continuous, closed-bottom wire basket from a single strand of wire with minimal manual intervention, using a traverse apparatus to translate the wire feed and rotate the spinning fixture simultaneously.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If wire baskets are manufactured by joining several individual strands of wire to form a grid structure, then the basket structure can be formed, but the manufacturing process becomes costly and complex requiring considerable skill and time
Solution Approach 1:
The basket manufacturing process is segmented into distinct operational phases: wire feeding, forming loops, winding in spiral pattern, and closing the bottom. Each phase is automated by specific device components working in sequence, transforming a complex manual joining process into manageable automated segments.
Solution Approach 2:
Manual mechanical operations of wire bending, looping, and joining are replaced by an automated mechanical system comprising a rotating fixture, wire feeder, and forming mechanism. The system uses controlled mechanical motion to automatically create the basket structure without manual intervention.
2Extent of automation
If a complicated machine process is used to form loops and wind wire in spiral around the basket side, then the basket can be machine-made, but additional operations are required to close the bottom and the process remains complex
Solution Approach 1:
The loop-forming operation and the spiral-winding operation are merged into a single continuous automated process. The rotating fixture simultaneously performs both functions as wire is fed through the system, eliminating the need for separate manual operations to close the bottom.
Solution Approach 2:
The wire feeding and basket forming operations continue uninterrupted in a single continuous motion. The rotating fixture maintains constant motion while wire is fed at controlled rates, creating loops and winding the basket body and bottom in one seamless automated sequence without stopping for additional operations.
3Ease of manufacture
If baskets are made with open bottom using continuous wire winding, then manufacturing is simplified, but additional crimping operations are required to secure the root ball during transportation
Solution Approach 1:
The bottom-closing action is performed preliminarily during the main winding process rather than as a subsequent operation. The rotating fixture automatically forms the bottom structure as part of the continuous wire winding, creating a closed-bottom basket that inherently secures the root ball without requiring additional crimping operations.
4Adaptability or versatility
If manual operations are used to form and join wire strands, then flexibility in producing various sizes and shapes is maintained, but production time and skill requirements increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The device incorporates adjustable and reconfigurable components that allow dynamic adaptation to different basket specifications. The rotating fixture and wire feeding mechanism can be adjusted to produce various sizes and patterns by changing operational parameters rather than requiring different manual techniques, maintaining versatility while dramatically improving productivity.
Data Source
AI summary
A device and method for making a wire basket, the device having a spinning fixture with a top plate with an outer periphery, arms attached at a top end at the periphery of the top plate and projecting downwardly, such that bottom ends of the arms collectively form a circular arrangement having a diameter greater than the diameter of the top plate, a means for guiding wire onto the spinning fixture such that the wire is wound onto the spinning fixture in a preselected pattern, and contacts to maintain the wire onto the spinning fixture in preselected locations, and the method including providing an apparatus for delivery of wire through a wire feed and for translating the wire feed lineally along a traverse, providing a spinning fixture for winding wire thereon, and winding a preselected pattern of wire onto the spinning fixture by translating the wire feed along the transverse.