Optimal Design And Force Analysis Of A Novel Chain Docking Clutch Device Applied To Marine Storage System

Marine automatic storage system is an intelligent logistics storage and transportation system,which stores goods by integrated storage and transportation shelves,and realizes automatic transfer of goods through transfer equipment.The integrated storage and transportation shelves can effectively improve the space utilization rate of marine warehouse because it does not need to set power source on each cargo location.With the help of the clutch device,the power source installed on the transfer equipment can be connected to the conveying device of cargo.Then,the transfer of cargo is realized.The clutch device should be able to adapt to the deformation of the hull.And even if there is a docking error,this device should still be able to achieve reliable power transmission.According to the above requirements,a novel chain docking clutch device is proposed in this paper,which is composed of electric push rod,servo motor,driving wheel,power chain,tensioning mechanism and idler gear.When the system works,the transplanting equipment will move to the designated location of cargo.With the help of electric push rod,the power chain installed on the docking clutch device is connected with the chain wheel which is installed on the storage shelves.Then,the power chain is driven by the servo motor to drive the conveying device of the target cargo,thus the transfer can be realized.Owing to its special docking form,the problem of roller-slippage may occur during the transport process.To avoid this problem,the mechanical factors that cause the roller-slippage are analyzed in this paper.The key parameters of the device are designed,and the reliability of the optimized design is verified by simulation and experiment.The components of the marine automatic storage system are presented.The work flow of the system is described in detail.Based on the principle of chain drive,the mechanical factors which lead to roller-slippage are analyzed.According to the relation between the tension of slack side and tight side during the transmission process is emphatically discussed.In order to avoid the roller-slippage,the calculation formula of the maximum effective circumferential force that the chain can transfer to the chain wheel is obtained.Considering the influence of the diameter of chain wheel on the space utilization rate and the condition that the slack side tension of the chain must satisfied when the roller-slippage can be avoided,a multi-objective optimization model is established with the objective function of minimizing the chain wheel diameter and the tension of slack side.And the key design parameters of docking clutch device are obtained by genetic algorithm.The servo motor is selected according to the design requirements of the chain drive clutch device.The mathematical model of the chain drive clutch device is established.And the controller is designed.The influence of ship rolling,acceleration and deceleration on the tension of the tight side of chain is considered.The simulation results show that the roller-slippage can be avoided,which verifies the rationality of the optimization design method.The experimental platform of this novel chain drive clutch device is established according to the design results.The control program and the human-machine interface are developed.Experimental results show that there is no roller-slippage phenomenon during the transfer process which demonstrates the effectiveness of the optimized design.