Research and Development

We have adopted a "belt conveying system" for stable conveyance of a great variety of fabrics.
In the stable conveyance of fabrics, this method is required to ensure that the belt should be kept at a specified position without being deviated in the lateral direction. In the conventional method, it was necessary for the stable conveyance that the peripheral length of the belt is lengthened and a complicated mechanical configuration was used for control. By contrast, Konica Minolta Co., Ltd. uses a newly developed "belt meandering control", whereby downsizing and simplification of the equipment have been achieved, with the "belt conveying system".

The belt conveying system is made up of a belt and a three-shaft roller set, which is composed of a drive roller for driving the belt in the direction of conveying fabrics, a tension roller for applying tension to the belt, and a control roller for controlling the meandering of the belt. The belt meandering control is designed in such a way that one side of the control roller is axis-traveled along the elliptical orbit formed on the basis of the drive and tension rollers as focuses. Because of this mechanism, since uniform stress is applied to the belt in one direction, this will facilitate belt control.

The belt meandering control was checked by simulation. It has been revealed that the gradient of the stress occurring to the belt is very small, and various control factors which is deviated the belt in the lateral direction can be reduced by the traveling of the control roller alone. This arrangement reduces the peripheral length of the belt and simplifies the structures, whereby downsizing of the equipment is achieved.