Design Modification and Optimization of Rotary Turret of Poucher Machine

Abstract

Pouching machines have wide scope in packaging products like Chocolate, pickle, grains to liquid detergents. The evolvement of many technological advancements has been carried out to incorporate automation. Starting with formation of pouch from the roll of web, filling and sealing all operations are carried out automatically. For the ease of use most of the food product firms want to have their product in pouches of medium size. Now-a-days grain products are being sold in 5 to 6 Kg capacity pillow type pouch packing. In rotary poucher machine the critical component is rotating turret as it rotates intermittently. Also, the diameter of the turret pate is considerable even for a small amount of mass suspended at the periphery. Hence, it is the most critical part because of the centrifugal force generated due to the weight of the filled pouches and the weight of the turret itself. As a part of dissertation work 3-dimenssional CAD model of rotary turret assembly has been prepared using solid modeling packages CRE-O. The finite element analysis (FEA) of turret plate has been carried out by considering two different criteria, first one is inertia force approach with mass of pouches and second one is centrifugal force approach using static structural and transient structural modules of analysis software ANSYS 15.0 respectively. The obtained simulation results for induced stress and deformation depict that the existing design of rotary turret plate is well within the allowable stress limits of considered material. The strength based and mass based optimization of turret plate has been carried out. The optimized design can be considered as most suitable to rotary turret plate to perform its function efficiently. Conceptual design of modified clamping mechanism is proposed with the prime goal of automatic adjustment of the distance between the claw arms subject to the specification of the bag and perform the function of automatic contraction and expansion of the claw arms when the bag is properly located at a specific position. The torque and inertia calculations have been also carried out by considering the optimized rotary turret plate, for the proper selection of the servo motor and reduction gear head for the driving mechanism of the rotary turret assembly to perform the desired task.