The present application claims the priority of Chinese Patent Application No. 202122739352.7, filed on Nov. 9, 2021, which is entirely incorporated into the present disclosure by reference.
The present disclosure relates to a technical field of pet supplies, and more particularly to a distribution wheel and a particulate matter releasing apparatus.
More and more people enjoy feeding pets, and pets as friends of humans also greatly improve the quality of people's life.
The pet feeder in the related art generally includes a hopper, a distribution wheel, and an ejection assembly. The distribution wheel includes a circumferential surface which defines a recess. Pet food (which is in a particulate form) accommodated in the hopper may enter the recess when the distribution wheel is rotated to a position where an opening of the recess is upward or diagonally upward. The pet food in the recess drops onto a preset position when the distribution wheel is rotated to another position where the opening of the recess is downward or obliquely downward. And then the ejection assembly ejects the pet food dropped onto the preset position to feed the pet. However, in the related art, there is usually a problem that pet food falls out of the recess of the distribution wheel in advance, and cannot be delivered to the preset position smoothly.
The present disclosure provides a distribution wheel and a particulate matter releasing apparatus to solve a problem that pet food falls out of the recess of the distribution wheel in advance, and cannot be delivered to a preset position smoothly.
A first technical solution provided by the present disclosure is to provide a particulate matter releasing apparatus. The particulate matter releasing apparatus includes a distribution wheel and a driving member. The distribution wheel includes a circumferential surface and defines a recess on the circumferential surface. The recess is configured for receiving particulate matter. An opening size of the recess is less than a bottom size of the recess. The driving member is configured to drive the distribution wheel to rotate.
In the present disclosure, an opening size of the recess may be less than a bottom size of the recess, so as to avoid a situation that the particulate matter in the recess falls out of the opening of the recess prematurely and cannot reach a preset position when the distribution wheel is rotated to a position where the opening of the recess is downward or obliquely downward.
A second technical solution provided by the present disclosure is to provide a distribution wheel. The distribution wheel is configured to release particulate matter. The distribution wheel includes a circumferential surface and defines a recess on the circumferential surface. The recess is configured for receiving particulate matter. The recess includes a first side wall and a second side wall disposed oppositely to each other. The first side wall is in front of the second side wall in a rotational direction of the distribution wheel. A top end of the first side wall is located at an intersection of a first reference surface and a second reference surface. The first reference surface is a plane on which an opening of the recess is located. The second reference surface is perpendicular to the first reference surface. A remaining portion of the first side wall other than the top end is located at a side of the second reference surface away from the second side wall.
A third technical solution provided by the present disclosure is to provide a particulate matter releasing apparatus. The particulate matter releasing apparatus includes a driving member and a distribution wheel described above. The driving member is configured to drive the distribution wheel to rotate.
In the present disclosure, the remaining portion of the first side wall other than the top end is located at a side of the second reference surface away from the second side wall. When the distribution wheel is rotated to a position where the opening of the recess is downward or obliquely downward, the first side wall may retain the particulate matter in the recess to avoid a situation that the particulate matter falls out of the recess along the first side wall prematurely, and cannot reach a preset position.
In order to illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present disclosure or the prior art more clearly, the following will briefly introduce the figures needed to be used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art. Obviously, the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present disclosure. Those skilled in the art may derive other figures from these figures without paying any creative work.
The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present disclosure will be described clearly and completely with reference to the figures in the embodiments of the present disclosure. Obviously, the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present disclosure, rather than all the embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present disclosure, all other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art without any creative work are within the scope of the present disclosure.
Mentioning “embodiments” herein means that a specific feature, structure, or characteristic described in conjunction with the embodiments may be included in at least one embodiment of the present disclosure. The appearances of the phrase in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments. It is explicitly and implicitly understood by those skilled in the art that the embodiments described herein may be combined with other embodiments.
The terms “first”, “second”, and “third” in the embodiments of the present disclosure are only used for descriptive purposes, and cannot be understood as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of indicated technical features. Thus, the features defined with “first”, “second”, and “third” may explicitly or implicitly include at least one of the features. In the description of the present application, “a plurality of” means at least two, e. g., two, three, etc., unless specifically defined otherwise. All directional indications (such as up, down, left, right, front, back) in the embodiments of the present disclosure are only used to account for relative positional relationships, motion conditions, etc., between components in a particular orientation (as shown in the drawings), if the particular orientation changed, correspondingly changes the directional indications. In addition, the terms “including” and “having” and any variations thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions. For example, a process, method, system, product, or device that includes a series of steps or units is not limited to the listed steps or units, but optionally includes unlisted steps or units, or optionally also includes other steps or units inherent to these processes, methods, products or equipment.
Please refer to
The outer housing is configured to protect components disposed therein. An upper portion of the inner housing 10 defines a hopper 101. The hopper 101 is configured to accommodate particulate matter. The distribution wheel 20 is disposed within an intermediate portion of the inner housing 10. The bottom of the inner housing 10 has a releasing platform 112. The driving member 30 is configured to drive the distribution wheel 20 to rotate. The distribution wheel 20 includes a circumferential surface and defines a recess 201 on the circumferential surface. The particulate matter in the hopper 101 may enter the recess 201 when the distribution wheel 20 is rotated to a position where an opening of the recess 201 is upward or diagonally upward. The particulate matter in the recess 201 falls onto the releasing platform 112 at the bottom of the inner housing 10 when the distribution wheel 20 is rotated to another position where the opening of the recess 201 is downward or obliquely downward. And then the releasing assembly releases the particulate matter falling onto the releasing platform 112 to feed the pet.
Next, a specific structure of the inner housing 10, the distribution wheel 20, the driving member 30, and the releasing assembly will be described in detail one by one.
<Inner Housing 10>
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The baffle 13 may be rotationally connected, such as hinged, to the first shell 11 and/or the second shell 12 to enable the baffle 13 to swing within the hopper 101. On one hand, a swing of the baffle 13 may toggle the particulate matter within the hopper 101 to avoid a situation that the particulate matter gets stuck in the hopper 101 and cannot enter the recess 201 of the distribution wheel 20. On the other hand, the swing of the baffle 13 may also help to avoid a situation that the particulate matter gets stuck between the baffle 13 and the distribution wheel 20.
The baffle 13 may have certain elasticity. The present disclosure do not limited a specific material of the baffle 13, and any one skilled in the art may choose depending on an actual requirements.
In some embodiments, the inner housing 10 may also be excluded by the particulate matter releasing apparatus 100. For example, there is only a channel, a conduit, or a container for guiding the particulate matter. In this situation, the distribution wheel may be fixed to the channel, the conduit, or the container described above directly or via a bracket.
<Distribution Wheel 20>
The distribution wheel 20 is configured to dispense the particulate matter within the hopper 101 to the releasing platform 112. Please refer to
Next, a shape of the recess 201 of the distribution wheel 20 will be described firstly.
In the embodiment, an opening size of the recess 201 may be less than a bottom size of the recess 201 to avoid a situation that the particulate matter in the recess 201 falls out of the opening of the recess 201 prematurely and cannot reach the releasing platform 112 when the distribution wheel 20 is rotated to a position where the opening of the recess 201 is downward or obliquely downward.
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With continued reference to
In the embodiment, in a direction from the opening of the recess 201 to the bottom of the recess 201, the first side wall 2011 is gradually away from the second side wall 2012 to avoid a situation that the particulate matter within the recess 201 falls out of the opening of the recess 201 prematurely and cannot reach the releasing platform 112 when the distribution wheel 20 is rotated to a position where the opening of the recess 201 is downward or obliquely downward.
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For example, the first side wall 2011 may extend along the circumferential surface of the distribution wheel 20 to retain the particulate matter in the recess 201 better when the distribution wheel 20 is rotated to a position where the opening of the recess 201 is downward or obliquely downward, so as to ensure that the particulate matter within the recess 201 falls out of the recess 201 along the first side wall 2011, and then moves along the guiding plate 111 to reach the releasing platform 112.
In order to reduce a processing difficulty of the distribution wheel 20, an inner surface of the second side wall 2012 and an inner surface of the bottom wall 2013 of the recess 201 may also be provided as straight surfaces to facilitate processing and molding. The present disclosure is not limited thereto. In some embodiments, the inner surface of the second side wall 2012 and the inner surface of the bottom wall 2013 may also be curved surfaces, and any one skilled in the art may choose according to actual needs.
In the embodiment, a depth of the recess 201 occupies 30%-60% of a diameter of the distribution wheel 20 to ensure that the particulate matter within the recess 201 may smoothly reach the releasing platform 112 without falling out of the recess 201 in advance. For example, the depth of the recess 201 may occupy 30%, 40%, 50%, or 60% of the diameter of the distribution wheel 20, which may be selected by any one skilled in the art according to actual needs. In a circumferential direction of the distribution wheel 20, a width of the opening of the recess 201 occupies 15%-35% of a circumference of the distribution wheel, so that particulate matter within the hopper 101 may enter into the recess 201 smoothly. For example, in the circumferential direction of the distribution wheel 20, the width of the opening of the recess 201 may occupy 15%, 20%, 25%, 30%, or 35% of the circumference of the distribution wheel 20, which may be selected by any one skilled in the art according to actual needs.
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Next, the specific structure of the distribution wheel 20 will be described.
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Specifically, the distribution wheel 20 may include two resilient members disposed symmetrically along the circumferential direction of the distribution wheel 20, such that the distribution wheel 20 oscillates at a fixed frequency during a rotation thereof. In some embodiments, the number of the resilient member may also be one, three, four, or even more. The present disclosure is not limited thereto, and any one skilled in the art may select according to actual circumstances.
In the embodiment, the elastic member may be a spring. As shown in
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In the embodiment, an end surface of the second end 205 of the distribution wheel 20 is provided with an extending wall 206. The extending wall 206 extends outward from the end surface of the second end 205 in an axial direction of the distribution wheel 20. The extending wall 206 extends in the circumferential direction of the distribution wheel 20. In the rotational direction of the distribution wheel 20, a height of the extending wall 206 (i. e., the distance between an end of the extending wall 206 away from the end surface of the second end 205 and the end surface of the second end 205) decreases gradually first and then increases sharply. In other words, the extending wall 206 is disposed as a spiral line, to drive the release assembly to release the particulate matter on the release platform 112.
As mentioned above, in the embodiment, the driving member 30 is connected to the second end 205 of the distribution wheel 20 on which the extending wall 206 is provided. In some embodiments, the driving member 30 may also be connected to the first end 204. The present disclosure is not limited thereto, and any one skilled in the art may select according to actual needs.
In some embodiments, the extending wall 206 of the distribution wheel 20 may also be disposed in an involute manner with respect to an axis of the distribution wheel 20. In the rotational direction of the distribution wheel 20, a distance between the extending wall 206 and the axis of the distribution wheel 20 decreases gradually first and then increases sharply, to drive the release assembly to release the particulate matter on the release platform 112. The present disclosure is not limited thereto, and any one skilled in the art may select according to actual needs.
In some embodiments, the extending wall 206 may also be excluded from distribution wheel 20. For example, an end of the distribution wheel 20 may be connected with a cam. The cam rotates synchronously with the distribution wheel 20, to drive the releasing assembly to release the particulate matter on the releasing platform 112. The present disclosure is not limited thereto, and any one skilled in the art may select according to actual needs.
<Driving Member 30 and Releasing Assembly>
With continued reference to
With continued reference to
During a rotation of the distribution wheel 20, the extending wall 206 of the second end 205 of the distribution wheel 20 may push the ejection frame 40 to swing in a direction away from the second shell 12, during which the ejection spring is compressed. Since the height of the extending wall 206 disposed on the second end 205 of the distribution wheel 20 decreases gradually first and then increases suddenly, when the ejection frame 40 swings to a preset magnitude in a direction away from the second shell 12, the pushing force from the distribution wheel 20 disappears suddenly, the ejection spring drives the ejection frame 40 to swing back (i. e., the ejection frame 40 swing towards the second shell 12), a baffle 41 disposed at a bottom of the ejection frame 40 extends into the inner housing 10 via the avoidance region 121 defined by the second shell 12, to eject the particulate matter on the releasing platform 112 from the first opening 113 of the first shell 11.
Specific structures of the particulate matter releasing apparatus 100 provided by the present disclosure are described above in detail. In addition, the inventor also designs tests to compare the feeding effect of the distribution wheel provided by the present disclosure with the distribution wheel in the related art.
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The distribution wheel 20 shown in
Among them, one kind of the pet snacks is pet cookies, which are brittle cookie products with a size of 28.5 mm*12.2 mm*6.6 mm. The other kind of the pet snacks is lyophilized snacks, which are dehydrated meat products with certain resilience. The lyophilized snacks has a size of 13.3 mm*13.0 mm*10.0 mm.
One experimental statistical index is a number of the particulate matter taken out of the hopper by the distribution wheel at every time. Under ideal conditions, the number of the particulate matter taken out by the distribution wheel at every time should be consistent. The other experimental statistical index is a number of the particulate matter remaining on the releasing platform without being ejected out by the releasing assembly. Under ideal conditions, there should be no particulate matter remaining on the releasing platform. However, in practice, the shape of the recess may cause the distribution wheel to take too much particulate matter out of the hopper, as a result, the releasing assembly cannot eject all the particulate matter out, and a part of the particulate matter is remaining on the releasing platform.
The results of the statistical indexes of the 50 feeding tests on the pet cookies are shown in the table below:
It can be obtained from the analysis of experimental data shown above that:
The distribution wheel of the present disclosure has a lower variance of the number of the particulate matter taken by the distribution wheel, indicating that the number of the particulate matter taken by the distribution wheel has a small fluctuation in multiple feeding tests. In addition, the average number of the particulate matter retaining on the releasing platform of the distribution wheel of the present disclosure is also less than the distribution wheel of the related art.
The results of the statistical indexes of the 50 feeding tests on the lyophilized snacks are shown in the table below:
It can be obtained from the analysis of experimental data shown above that:
The distribution wheel of the present disclosure has a lower variance of the number of the particulate matter taken by the distribution wheel, indicating that the number of the particulate matter taken by the distribution wheel has a small fluctuation in multiple feeding tests. In addition, the average number of the particulate matter retaining on the releasing platform of the distribution wheel of the present disclosure is also less than the distribution wheel of the related art.
To sum up, for commonly used pet snacks, the performance of the distribution wheel of the present disclosure is better than the distribution wheel of the related art on both the evenness of the number of the particulate matter taken by the distribution wheel and whether the particulate matter is easy to be remained on the releasing platform.
The above description are only embodiments of the present disclosure, and do not limit the scope of the present disclosure. Any equivalent structure or equivalent process transformation made by using the contents of the description and drawings of the present disclosure, or directly or indirectly used in other related technical fields, are similarly included in the scope of patent protection of the present disclosure.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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202122739352.7 | Nov 2021 | CN | national |