Conveyor Iteration Two (no unloading failures during lifespan)

First Conveyor with an Acrylic Base-Plate

This project went through two iterations. The first iteration is shown one the left, with a 1/4" Acrylic Base Plate and 80/20 Bars running lengthwise. The conveyor cantilevers over the front of the robot chassis to cover a "dead-spot" in the robot's reach.

The rollers were mounted to the base-plate with 5052-H32 mounts. This immediately presented an issue as the the base plate warped when the retaining nuts for the rollers were being installed with a relatively large torque-spec of 70 N-m.

This design also proved to not be stiff enough in testing as customer boxes were heavier than anticipated. As this was an important assembly, it was decided to opt for a more expensive, but permanent solution.

The second iteration was composed of a two-part 5052-H32 base plate that integrated the roller mounts. This was supported underneath by custom 5mm thick mild-steel U-bars to improve flexural rigidity. Additionally, to ensure that unloaded boxes followed the "S" shape (away from the container wall), a sunken roller was added to divert any off-course boxes. As the conveyor needed to be detached from the chassis regularly to access the internal wiring of the robot, handles were added on each end to easily dismount the conveyor from the main chassis.