Designing a Tilting Mechanism for Air Hose, Locking Methods and Resources

[sa2908]

Hello,
I want to design a mechanism for tilting an air hose (not more than 10 kg) to a desired angle (anywhere between 0 and 90 degrees depending on operating conditions) and holding it there. I've tried googling this up but just can;t find what I was lookin for. Then I searched for the tilt mechanism of laptop screens but I get results for tilting mechanism patents so not much use there...

Anyone able to suggest resources or links for different types of tilting mechanisms available and the locking methods? Esp for the tilt mechanism for laptops where YOU DON'T HAVE TO LOCK the screen in position...you move it to whatever angle you want and it stays there nicely...

Cheers!

 

[sa2908]

I'm sure there must be some mechanical engineering textbook with details on this!...

 

[Baluncore]

Do you want to position an air jet or the hose only ?Do you want to position it by hand or power ?

There are widely available swivel joints for airlines and hydraulics, usually as part of an elbow. They have sufficient friction to remain in position once placed. Google 'air line swivel fitting'.

You might also make one from a 'quick release airline connector' with an elbow fitting.

 

[sa2908]

Thank you for the reply.

Well it is just the hose which I want to tilt and it is to be done by hand. During the course of a day, the hose might need to be tilted at 35 deg, then maybe at 70 degree and so on...

I searched for air line swivel fitting, but these are too small for our use. The opening of our hose has a much bigger surface area than what these fittings seem to be available in (even the mouth of our hose is not actually circular in shape). I was hoping to fit the hose in a mechanism that can allow the tilting.

I'm attaching pictures for the tilt ideas I have in mind, but I want the details for these mechanisms!

 

[Baluncore]

There are very many engineering solutions to this poorly specified problem of “tilting”.
1. What is the diameter of your airline ?
2. What pressure is in your airline ?
3. What is the application ?
4. Where does the airline go after it has been “tilted” ?
5. What forces are acting on the airline once it is set in position ?
6. Who has given you such an unspecified wide challenge ?

 

[sa2908]

I have attached two pictures to make things clearer.

The first one shows the hose only which has a diameter of 40 mm and a head with a rectangular sort of mouth. The air pressure for air coming out of the head is 3.8-4 bar.
The application for this is to force the glasswool fibers coming out of the sides of a spinner (FYI molten glass is poured into a spinner which has holes drilled out on its sides and as the molten glass cools coming out of these holes it becomes glasswool fibers aka glasswool insulation) towards the center as the fibers are sucked down onto a perforated conveyor by a suction fan. Now, the tilting of the hose helps in adjusting the thickness distribution (across the width of the conveyor) of the glasswool - more homogeneous distribution = better looking product.

In the second picture I've drawn the current crude method of tilting the hose. We have a "SHAFT" which supports a hollow "HOLDER". The holder has clamps A and B and also has a welded bit at the top into which the hose is clamped by clamp B (shown as an arrow - i.e. going into the page). The holder can be moved laterally by loosening the two clamps A and it can be tilted also by loosening the same two clamps A. Clamp B is for moving the hose in and out of the page - i.e. close or further away from the glasswool coming out of the fiber. Once a certain angle of the hose gives a good thickness distribution of glasswool, it is locked or clamped into place and that is it. The only force acting on the hose is its weight (not more than 5-10 kg) and the high pressure air coming out.

We need to have control over the tilting bit so that we have more fine and smooth control. Even for the lateral movement, we will have a rack and pinion system rather than the current jerky motion.

Hope this clarifies things more - sorry if the problem was not well specified.

Thanks

 

[sa2908]

I just want some ideas/mechanism for tilting - ignore the other movements I talked about above please (that was just for the sake of detail that I mentioned them)

Any mechanism like that of a laptop screen for example, where you just use your the thumb of your hand to move the screen (i.e. in my case you just DIRECTLY push the hose up or down smoothly and the hose remains in position)

...or even something INDIRECT like a small wheel which when rotated produces the tilt...you know something akin to the blinds where you tilt a rod and that translates into the tilting of the blinds.

 

[Baluncore]

Both the mass imbalance of the head and the thrust of the head airflow must be countered by the swivel mechanism clamp. The airflow should not be obstructed by sharp bends.
If you have a 4 bar pressure in a 40mm open airline you can expect a significant reaction force, maybe 120 pounds. The reaction will depend on the design of the head. To balance the torque, it will be important to deliver that axial force in the same plane as the swivel axis. It may also be necessary to provide static balancing of the head mass about the swivel axis.
To adjust the tilt requires a force overcome the clamp friction. That force will be a minimum, and symmetrical, when things are balanced.

Those problems have been faced before under more difficult situations. Hydraulic mining uses water cannon to erode material. They have clean flow and are easy to aim because they are well balanced. For examples take a look at;
http://magnumaustralia.com/en/water-cannons/cannons.html

 

[Nidum]

Make them a bit bigger and fit safety strut and locking mechanism .

Shower head 1

Shower head 2

 

[sa2908]

Thanks for all the replies. I finally found something I can get off the shelf actually and posting it here for people's knowledge:

It's called a pivot joint with locking handle:

http://www.framingtech.com/pivot-joint-lock-handle-45mm-profiles-with-m12-mounting-hole-p588.htmlThank you all once again!