Wire Mesh Bending Rod Layout for Low-Friction Manual Forming
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for bending wire mesh to form animal guards for solar panel installations are inefficient, often requiring manual labor, leading to time consumption and potential repetitive stress injuries, and existing machinery is complex, expensive, and requires external power sources.
Innovation Solution
A material-forming device with an arrangement of contact rods that continuously contact the wire mesh to form a desired bend profile, allowing for manual operation without electrical power and reducing friction, enabling the formation of a wire mesh animal guard with adjustable bend angles and profiles.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If manual bending of wire mesh is used, then the process is simple and requires no external power, but it is slow and causes repetitive stress injuries
Solution Approach 1:
The wire mesh itself serves as the bending tool through its longitudinal wires acting as fulcrums. The material being processed performs the bending function, eliminating the need for separate bending tools or machinery. This allows rapid bending without external power while avoiding repetitive stress on operators' hands and wrists.
Solution Approach 2:
The bending function is extracted from the wire mesh structure by utilizing its inherent longitudinal wires as fulcrums. Rather than adding complex bending mechanisms, the solution extracts and leverages the existing structural elements of the wire mesh to perform the bending operation.
2Productivity
If existing metal bending machinery is used, then bending speed increases, but the equipment becomes complex and expensive
Solution Approach 1:
The wire mesh serves its own bending needs by using its longitudinal wires as fulcrums. This self-service approach eliminates the requirement for complex external bending machinery, reducing equipment complexity and cost while maintaining high bending speed.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention replaces expensive, complex bending machinery with a simple, inexpensive method using the wire mesh's own structure. The fulcrum function is provided by the wire mesh itself rather than requiring separate, costly bending tools.
3Force
If existing bending techniques with large surface contact are used, then bending force is sufficient, but friction increases making hand-powered operation difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The bending process is segmented into discrete contact points along the wire mesh's longitudinal wires rather than continuous surface contact. This segmentation reduces the total contact area and friction, making hand-powered operation easier while still providing sufficient bending force at each fulcrum point.
Solution Approach 2:
The wire mesh's longitudinal wires act as cylindrical fulcrums, distributing contact force along curved surfaces rather than flat planes. This curvature reduces friction compared to flat-surface bending while maintaining adequate bending force through the rounded contact geometry.
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 device efficiently bends wire mesh into a stable animal guard profile, reducing installation time and preventing repetitive strain injuries, while being portable and cost-effective, thus enhancing the durability and maintenance of solar panel systems.
Implementation Method 1
an outer contact rod and an inner contact rod that are each configured to engage a first side of the sheet of wire mesh, and a middle contact rod positioned between the inner contact rod and the outer rod and configured to engage a second side of the sheet of wire mesh
Data Source
AI summary
A material-forming device for a wire mesh includes a plurality of contact rods that are supported by the frame and configured to threadedly receive a sheet of wire mesh that moves through the plurality of contact rods in a downstream direction. An inner contact rod and an outer contact rod are each configured to engage a first side of the sheet of wire mesh, and a middle contact rod is positioned between the inner contact rod and the outer rod and configured to engage a second side of the sheet of wire mesh that opposes the first side. The shape of the outer contact rod and/or the inner contact rod is configured to bend the sheet of wire mesh around the middle contact rod as the sheet of wire mesh moves in the downstream direction.