Geneva Conveyer Belt

Aim:

The main stay of the project is to design, mechanize and fabrication of a motorized Geneva conveyer belt for industries.

Proposed System:

            Here we are going to create a conveyer belt with a Geneva mechanism. The conveyer belt is connected to a Geneva mechanism. An electric motor powers the Geneva mechanism, the conveyer belt is rotated with a pause in between. This is helpful in assembly lines and inspection lines of industries.

Advantages

·               Geneva mechanism may be the simplest and least Expensive of all intermittent motion mechanisms.

·              They come in a wide variety of sizes, ranging from those used in instruments, to those used in machine tools to index spindle carriers weighing several tons.

·                   They have good motion curves characteristics compared to ratchets, but exhibit more “jerk” or instantaneous change in acceleration, than better cam systems

             Geneva maintains good control of its load at all Times, since it is provided with locking ring surfaces.

Abstract :

        Geneva mechanism is a method to transform continuous circular motion into intermittent/fixed step circular motion i.e. a circular motion produced in equal intervals of time and resulting in the same displacement. The name “Geneva” is derived from Geneva, Switzerland where in its earliest days the device was used in mechanical watchmaking. The Geneva drive is also called a Maltese cross mechanism due to their visual similarity. A conveyer belt is basically a linear belt usually made up of rubber or plastic compounds (of high strength) combined with one or more layers of fabrics such as nylon, polyester, neoprene, or nitrile. It has a basic function of transporting material from one point to another. A simple Geneva mechanism consists of a drive wheel (connected to motor) and a driven wheel (connected to belt pulleys). The drive wheel is a disk with a pin or a shaft near its circumference. The driven wheel consists of several slots. The drive wheel is kept next to the driven wheel in such a way that when the drive wheel is rotated, the pin or shaft fits inside the slot of driven wheel. As it reaches the inner most point of the slot, the pin exerts a force on the driven wheel. As the driven wheel is pivoted from the center, a moment is produced which causes the generation of a torque, leading to the rotation of the driven wheel and the pulley attached to it. Hence, there is an intermittent circular motion in them resulting in the movement of the belt. There are several types of Geneva rotator such as external Geneva rotator, internal Geneva rotator and spherical Geneva rotator. The mechanism that I will be using for the conveyer belt is of an External Geneva rotator in which the rotating drive wheel interacts with the driven wheel externally. This mechanism results in instantaneous motion  4 at regular intervals and can withstand higher mechanical stresses. The mechanism has numerous applications in many industries especially the automobile industry. It is one of the most simple and inexpensive mechanisms.