US 11,377,301 B2Granted

Motor-operated conveyor roller with integrated controller

AssigneeInterroll Holding AG

InventorsAndreas Hampe, Herbert Henze

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Abstract

The invention relates to a motorized conveyor roller, comprising a roller body mounted so as to be able to rotate about a roller axle, a drive unit arranged inside the roller body and designed to generate a rotational movement about the roller axle between an axle element and the roller body. The invention is characterized by a control unit that is arranged inside the roller body and that is designed to receive a state signal from outside the roller body, to generate a control signal that describes a drive characteristic on the basis of the state signal, to control the drive unit by way of the control signal, to generate a self state signal that describes the state signal and/or the drive characteristic, and to transmit this self state signal outside the roller body.

Claims15

Dependent claims

A motorized conveyor roller, comprising:

a roller body mounted so as to be able to rotate about a roller axle,
a drive unit arranged inside the roller body and designed to generate a rotational movement about the roller axle between an axle element and the roller body,
characterized by a control unit that is arranged inside the roller body and that is designed
to receive a state signal from outside the roller body,
to generate a control signal that describes a drive characteristic on the basis of the state signal,
to control the drive unit by way of the control signal,
to generate a self state signal that describes the state signal and/or the drive characteristic, and
to transmit this self state signal outside the roller body, and
characterized in that the control unit is designed to receive
a sensor signal from a sensor arranged outside the roller body and/or
a self state signal from another motorized conveyor roller
as state signal and the control unit is designed to generate the control signal on the basis of this sensor signal and/or this self state signal,
wherein the control unit is designed to receive a digital signal as state signal and to send a digital signal as self state signal,
wherein the state signal has a first data structure designed for bus-based communication, having a first address data part and a first content data part and the self state signal has a second data structure designed for bus-based communication, having a second address data part and a second content data part.

11 more elements

A conveyor roller arrangement having at least one first conveyor roller having a first control unit and a second conveyor roller having a second control unit,

said first conveyor roller and said second conveyor roller each comprising
a roller body mounted so as to be able to rotate about a roller axle,
a drive unit arranged inside the roller body and designed to generate a rotational movement about the roller axle between an axle element and the roller body,
and said first control unit, arranged inside the roller body of the first conveyor roller, and said second control unit, arranged inside the roller body of the second conveyor roller, each designed
to receive a state signal from outside the roller body,
to generate a control signal that describes a drive characteristic on the basis of the state signal,
to control the drive unit by way of the control signal,
to generate a self state signal that describes the state signal and/or the drive characteristic, and
to transmit this self state signal outside the roller body,
characterized in that the first and the second control unit are connected to one another by way of a digital signal line and the first control unit of the first conveyor roller is designed to send digital first self state data to the second control unit, and to receive digital second self state data from the second control unit and to control the drive unit of the first conveyor roller on the basis of the second self state data received from the second conveyor roller.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 17/312,026Filed 19 Dec 2019
Priority: DE 10 2018 133 478.821 Dec 2018
Published: US 2022/0024693 A127 Jan 2022
Granted: 5 Jul 2022
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification8 codes

B65G 23/08
Drums, rollers, or wheels: with self-contained driving mechanisms, e.g. motors and associated gearing
B65G 13/06
Having driven rollers: roller driving means
B65G 43/00
Control devices
B65G 43/10
Control devices, e.g. for safety, warning or fault-correcting: sequence control of conveyors operating in combination