US 11,940,373 B2
Method, system and test article for estimating the extent of a friction interaction between a conveyor and transported articles
Andrea Andreoli, Modena (IT); and Kaur Parmjit, Soliera (IT)
Assigned to Rexnord FlatTop Europe S.R.L., Corregio (IT)
Appl. No. 17/423,329
Filed by REXNORD FLATTOP EUROPE S.R.L., Correggio (IT)
PCT Filed Feb. 24, 2020, PCT No. PCT/EP2020/054752
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Jul. 15, 2021,
PCT Pub. No. WO2020/173864, PCT Pub. Date Sep. 3, 2020.
Claims priority of application No. 102019000002903 (IT), filed on Feb. 28, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0099559 A1, Mar. 31, 2022
Int. Cl. G01N 19/02 (2006.01); B65G 43/02 (2006.01); B65G 45/02 (2006.01)
CPC G01N 19/02 (2013.01) [B65G 43/02 (2013.01); B65G 45/02 (2013.01); B65G 2201/0244 (2013.01); B65G 2203/0208 (2013.01)] 18 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. Method for estimating the extent of a friction interaction between a transport surface of a conveyor of articles and articles transported on the transport surface, comprising:
providing a test article representative of the articles of a batch of articles which have to be transported by a conveyor of articles;
associating a sensor with the test article, said sensor comprising an acceleration sensor associated with the test article that is arranged to measure at least one acceleration along a direction lying in a plane that is oriented relative to a support plane of the test article;
supporting the test article on a moving transport surface of the conveyor of articles;
acquiring measurements of the at least one acceleration experienced by the test article being supported on the moving transport surface with the acceleration sensor; and
estimating the extent of a friction interaction between the moving transport surface and the test article based on the acquired measurements of the at least one acceleration.