Picker and "pusher" - piston

To little detail. How far are you pushing the 20kg? How many times per hour? How much friction? If you can answer these questions, I would still be clueless. But there are people that understand this kind of stuff! Mikek

Since you don't know how much friction is involved I think you would benefit from measuring the force it takes to move the object. You could get an idea of this by using a fish weighing scale attached to the object and noting how much it takes to get the box moving (static coefficient of friction is greater than dynamic coefficient of friction).

That should get you started with some numbers to chew on.

Really need a lot more information. If I were going to do that, I would tr y to arrange it so some packages do not need a push. They just stay on the track. And fix it so the packages that need to go on to another track just need a nudge and they slide down to the other track. Might be possib le to just use a solenoid and not need a hydraulic supply or air supply.

Dan

Are there two or three choices here? Reading your post suggests the items being sorted are either pulled or pushed depending on the selection process.

If that is the case, you only need to push something off the track/path as the item not pushed is the other choice.

Or are the choices Push, Pull, or Continue?

What is the selection process? Weight, size, colour, freshness, dimensions...?

Are the items fragile or robust?

More info needed!

John

As everyone says more info is needed. Here's a near zero power idea, in cas e that might be your prime requirement: simply position an overhead movable vertical shaft with a large bearing on the bottom & lock it in place. As t he package arrives the belt will do the pushing. You may need several.

NT

Does this refer to electric power consumption? Could you lower a slanted board onto the track, so that the object deflects after striking the board, would THAT be more acceptable (because it uses the track as power source) than a motorized push-stick?

What's a track in this context?

It takes a ballpark 2kW pulse to operate a railway switch to direct a

200,000Kg locomotive.

so, if you want to save energy, perform work on the environment, not the payload, let the payload be influenced by the environment.

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Instead of pushing or pulling, what about a gate that will direct the widget from one path to the other. Use the energy of the conveyer belt, or whatever, to actually move the widget. You'd need a lot less energy in your sorter.

Either that or 2 pushers for easier application

Right, that's a standard sorting conveyor. Here's a student version:

and a pro version:

There are lots of actuators available for this. If you're building a production system, buy a commercial one.

20Kg is heavy for pushing-type systems. Pushers in that range do exist, but they're big pieces of equipment.

Do you have compressed air available? Controlling solenoid air valves from an Arduino to control an air cylinder is quite practical. Here's an example.

The industrial conveyor people like to use fast pushers. If you push slowly, the object may rotate or move sideways, ending up in the wrong place. A good fast shove tends to put the object where you want it.

John Nagle

Thank you guys for great answers and suggestions ! The last post is exactly what i need.

*** That was the main idea but i was not sure if the can be done in this way ( regarding the weight ). I can not push the package with that speed so am wondering will there be enough power to push the package in some "slow mode" :-)

And the main thing, how to calculate the strength of the air compressor and power consumption needed for running this setup ? If you have some pneumatic piston in mind, pleas share a link..

GM

pressure multiplied by cylinder internal cross-section is force. how fast do you want to accellerate the load, and against how much friction?

For slow mode a pressure resistant tank of oil can be introduced before the cylinder such that the air pushes the oil through a restriction into the cylinder. it can be arranges that the restriction is is different in each direction so that it's slow extending but retracts faster etc...