Sound attenuation for material handling systems

Abstract

A sound attenuated material handling element reduces vibration and sound in a material handling system. The material handling element may be a sound attenuated roller for use in a roller conveyer or a sound attenuated nestable tote for receiving and transporting articles in the material handling system. Reducing vibration in material handling element reduces the noise produced by the element. The sound attenuated roller includes sound attenuating material disposed inside of the roller and in contact with the inner surface of the roller body. The sound attenuated nestable tote includes sound dampening material disposed in or formed with the tote structure. The sound damping material may be integrally formed with the roller or tote in order to maximize vibration and noise attenuation. Three dimensional computer analysis may be used to determine optimized locations for placement of the sound damping material on the roller or tote.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[0001]The present application claims priority of U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 62 / 906,965 filed Sep. 27, 2019, by Eric Ahlquist and Jeffrey Devries for SOUND ATTENUATION FOR MATERIAL HANDLING SYSTEMS, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention is directed to sound attenuation in material handling systems, more particularly for sound attenuation of rollers for conveyors and receptacles for order item processing.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Material handling operations produce significant noise, due to various causes, including vibration during operation and manipulation of components of material handling systems. Noise sources include ringing in conveyor rollers due to vibrations in the rollers and impacts with the rollers, as well as rattling and vibration in material handling totes that produce resonance inside the tote. Significant levels of noise are known to ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0015]Therefore, the present invention provides a sound attenuated roller for use in a roller conveyer to reduce vibration experienced in the roller and thereby reduce noise produced by the vibration of the roller. The present invention provides a sound attenuated tote for use in a material handling operation. The sound attenuated tote is configured to reduce vibration experienced by a tote during handling and manipulation during material handling operations. Reducing the vibration in turn reduces the noise produced by the tote. Various materials may be used to provide sound damping properties to the roller and the tote, such as polyurethane, high density polyethylene, vinyl, mass loaded vinyl, butyl, Hypalon, and Viton. Various configurations of sound damping material may be utilized including constrained layer damping material and free layer damping material determined based on the need for resiliency properties in the sound damping material. The sound damping material may be integrally formed with the roller or tote in order to maximize vibration and noise attenuation. Three dimensional computer analysis may be used to determine the locations for placement of the sound damping material on the roller or tote.

Problems solved by technology

Material handling operations produce significant noise, due to various causes, including vibration during operation and manipulation of components of material handling systems.

Significant levels of noise are known to cause deleterious health effects for workers and operators inside of material handling facilities.

Receptacles or totes for handling and transporting articles and materials, such as nestable material handling totes, are inherently loud because of their design and / or material.

Totes are effectively a resonance chamber and when excited by being dropped or when running over rollers on a conveyor, the tote creates substantial noise, even when full of product.

Such totes can produce significant noise during conveyance and manipulation of the tote based on the inherent material properties of the tote.

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