阅读说明：本技术 一种数控机床盒式自动进料机构 (Box-type automatic feeding mechanism of numerical control machine tool ) 是由 罗林杰 于 2021-09-03 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明公开了一种数控机床盒式自动进料机构,包括工作台,所述工作台的顶部设置有进料桶,所述进料桶的底部一侧设有输送机,所述输送机的一端连接有输料管道,所述输料管道的一端设有待加工台,所述待加工台的顶部一端设置有气缸,所述气缸的伸缩轴连接有推板,所述推板的一端设有转运箱,所述进料桶的内部设有均料桶,所述均料桶的外壁设有空心外桶,本发明采用了进料桶、第一驱动电机、第一蜗杆、第一蜗轮、主动轮、从动轮、第二蜗杆、第二蜗轮、圆盘、分料板、第一出料口和第二出料口之间相互作用的配合,可以实现自动进料,自动定量定距输送,提高了效率,从而有效的解决了不能实现定量均量上料,容易造成工件堵塞的问题。(The invention discloses a box-type automatic feeding mechanism of a numerical control machine tool, which comprises a workbench, wherein a feeding barrel is arranged at the top of the workbench, a conveyor is arranged on one side of the bottom of the feeding barrel, one end of the conveyor is connected with a material conveying pipeline, one end of the material conveying pipeline is provided with a to-be-processed table, one end of the top of the to-be-processed table is provided with an air cylinder, a telescopic shaft of the air cylinder is connected with a push plate, one end of the push plate is provided with a transfer box, a material homogenizing barrel is arranged inside the feeding barrel, and the outer wall of the material homogenizing barrel is provided with a hollow outer barrel. Thereby effectively solving the problems that quantitative and uniform feeding can not be realized and the workpiece is easy to block.)

1. The box-type automatic feeding mechanism of the numerical control machine tool comprises a workbench (1) and is characterized in that a feeding barrel (2) is arranged at the top of the workbench (1), a conveyor (3) is arranged on one side of the bottom of the feeding barrel (2), one end of the conveyor (3) is connected with a conveying pipeline (4), one end of the conveying pipeline (4) is provided with a platform (5) to be processed, one end of the top of the platform (5) to be processed is provided with a cylinder, an expansion shaft of the cylinder is connected with a push plate, one end of the push plate is provided with a transfer box (6), a material equalizing barrel (41) is arranged inside the feeding barrel (2), the outer wall of the material equalizing barrel (41) is provided with a hollow outer barrel (42), one end of an inner bottom plate of the feeding barrel (2) is provided with a first driving motor (43) which is horizontally arranged, and the output end of the first driving motor (43) is fixedly connected with a first worm (44), the material homogenizing device is characterized in that one end of the first worm (44) is meshed with a first worm wheel (45), the top end of the first worm wheel (45) is fixedly connected with the bottom center of the material homogenizing barrel (41) through a rotating shaft, one end of the first worm (44) is fixedly connected with a driving wheel (8), the top of the driving wheel (8) is connected with a driven wheel (9) through a belt in a rotating manner, one side of the driven wheel (9) is fixedly connected with a second worm (10), one end of the second worm (10) is meshed with a second worm wheel (11), the bottom end of the second worm wheel (11) penetrates through the rotating shaft and extends to the material homogenizing through inner fixedly connected with a disc (12), a plurality of material distributing plates (16) which are arranged in a bending and inclining manner are welded at equal intervals at the top end of the disc (12), and a first discharge hole (13) and a second discharge hole (14) are respectively formed in one side of the material homogenizing barrel (41) and a hollow outer barrel (42), one end of the second discharge hole (14) is connected with a feeding pipe (15) which is obliquely arranged, and the bottom end of the feeding pipe (15) is connected with the conveyor (3).

2. The cassette type automatic feeding mechanism of numerical control machine tool according to claim 1, wherein the first discharging port (13) and the second discharging port (14) have the same caliber size, and the outer wall of the equalizing barrel (41) is in contact with the inner wall of the hollow outer barrel (42).

3. The cassette automatic feeding mechanism of the numerical control machine tool according to claim 1, wherein a feeding pipe (7) is fixedly connected to the top end of the feeding barrel (2), the bottom end of the feeding pipe (7) extends through the top of the equalizing barrel (41), a feeding hole is formed in the top of the equalizing barrel (41), and the bottom end of the feeding pipe (7) is in contact with the top of the feeding hole.

4. The cassette automatic feeding mechanism of a numerical control machine tool according to claim 1, wherein a striker plate (17) is arranged on one side of the top of the table (5) to be processed, the striker plate (17) is arranged right opposite to the conveying pipeline (4), and the striker plate (17) is made of an elastic buffer material.

5. The cassette automatic feeding mechanism of the numerical control machine tool according to claim 1, wherein a processing area (40) is arranged on one side of the conveyor (3), slide rails (38) are symmetrically and slidably connected to two ends of the bottom of the transfer box (6), a hydraulic cylinder (39) is arranged between the two slide rails (38), and a telescopic shaft of the hydraulic cylinder (39) is fixedly connected with the outer wall of one side of the transfer box (6).

6. The cassette automatic feed mechanism of numerical control machine tool according to claim 1, one end of the interior of the transfer box (6) is fixedly connected with a first sleeve (18) and a second sleeve (19) respectively, a second driving motor (20) which is horizontally arranged is arranged in the first sleeve (18), the output end of the second driving motor (20) is fixedly connected with a first driving bevel gear (21), one side of the first driving bevel gear (21) is connected with a first driven bevel gear (22) in a meshing way, one side of the first driven bevel gear (22) penetrates through the rotating shaft and extends into the second sleeve (19) to be fixedly connected with a second driving bevel gear (23), one side of the second driving bevel gear (23) is connected with a second driven bevel gear (24) in a meshing way, one sides of the first driven bevel gear (22) and the second driven bevel gear (24) are fixedly connected with a first screw rod (26) and a second screw rod (25) respectively.

7. The cassette automatic feeding mechanism of the numerical control machine tool according to claim 6, wherein a first gear (27) is engaged and connected to one side of the bottom of the first screw (26), a first rack plate (28) is engaged and connected to the bottom of the first gear (27), a push rod (29) is fixedly connected to one end of the first rack plate (28), and a top block is fixedly connected to one end of the push rod (29) extending out of the transfer box (6).

8. The cassette type automatic feeding mechanism of numerical control machine tool according to claim 6, wherein a second gear (30) is engaged and connected to one side of the top of the second screw (25), a connecting plate (31) is arranged on the top of the second gear (30), a second rack plate (32) is fixedly connected to the bottom of one end of the connecting plate (31), the second rack plate (32) is engaged and connected with the second gear (30), and a third rack plate (33) is fixedly connected to the top of the other end of the connecting plate (31).

9. The cassette automatic feeding mechanism of the numerical control machine tool according to claim 6, wherein a third gear (34) is arranged at the front end of the inside of the transfer box (6), a positive and negative screw (35) is fixedly connected to one side of the third gear (34), moving rods (36) are symmetrically and threadedly connected to two ends of the positive and negative screw (35), and arc-shaped clamping plates (37) are fixedly connected to two ends of the moving rods (36) which extend out of the transfer box (6).

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of machine tool feeding, in particular to a box-type automatic feeding mechanism of a numerical control machine tool.

Background

At present, in the processing process of a punching machine tool, an automatic feeding system is basically adopted, the system comprises a vibration disc, a lifting machine, a conveying slide way, a mechanical arm and the like, plate part blanks placed at will can be adjusted to the position required by processing through the vibration disc, then the plate part blanks are conveyed to the processing position through the lifting machine, the conveying slide way and the like before being conveyed to the punching machine tool, and the plate part blanks are held by the mechanical arm to be processed, so that the operation safety and the processing efficiency are improved.

Patent number is CN108544011B discloses a pipe cutting lathe of automatic feeding distance, including the lathe main part, the right-hand member fixedly connected with first fixed block of lathe main part upper surface, the lower fixed surface of first fixed block inner wall is connected with first spring. This automatic pipe cutting machine of feeding distance drives first hydraulic telescoping rod compression through first pneumatic cylinder, make the fixed steel pipe of first fixed strip, drive the compression of second hydraulic telescoping rod through the second pneumatic cylinder, make the fixed steel pipe of second fixed strip, drive the delivery wheel through first motor and rotate, make the steel pipe on the delivery wheel move left, the third pneumatic cylinder drives the compression of third hydraulic telescoping rod, it drives the tight piece downstream of arc clamp to make the support round bar, thereby make the tight piece of arc clamp and movable block clamp the steel pipe, the fourth pneumatic cylinder drives the compression of fourth hydraulic telescoping rod and makes the tight steel pipe of clamp move left between the tight piece of arc clamp and the movable block, make and realized can automatic feeding, automatic distance, the efficiency is improved, but this equipment can not realize quantitative equal material loading, cause the work piece jam easily.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to solve the problems and provides a box type automatic feeding mechanism of a numerical control machine tool.

In order to achieve the purpose, the invention adopts the following technical scheme:

a box-type automatic feeding mechanism of a numerical control machine tool comprises a workbench, wherein a feeding barrel is arranged at the top of the workbench, a conveyor is arranged on one side of the bottom of the feeding barrel, one end of the conveyor is connected with a material conveying pipeline, one end of the material conveying pipeline is provided with a platform to be processed, one end of the top of the platform to be processed is provided with a cylinder, a telescopic shaft of the cylinder is connected with a push plate, one end of the push plate is provided with a transfer box, a material homogenizing barrel is arranged inside the feeding barrel, the outer wall of the material homogenizing barrel is provided with a hollow outer barrel, one end of an inner bottom plate of the feeding barrel is provided with a horizontally arranged first driving motor, the output end of the first driving motor is fixedly connected with a first worm, one end of the first worm is meshed with a first worm wheel, the top end of the first worm wheel is fixedly connected with the bottom center of the material homogenizing barrel through a rotating shaft, one end of the first worm is fixedly connected with an active wheel, the top of action wheel is rotated through the belt and is connected with from the driving wheel, from one side fixedly connected with second worm of driving wheel, the one end meshing of second worm is connected with the second worm wheel, the bottom of second worm wheel runs through the pivot and extends to the interior fixedly connected with disc of homocline expert, equidistant welding in the top of disc has a plurality of branch flitchs that are crooked slope setting, first discharge gate and second discharge gate have been seted up respectively to one side of homocline bucket and hollow outer bucket, the one end of second discharge gate is connected with the material loading pipe that is the slope setting, the bottom and the conveyer of material loading pipe are connected.

Preferably, the caliber sizes of the first discharge hole and the second discharge hole are the same, and the outer wall of the material homogenizing barrel is in contact with the inner wall of the hollow outer barrel.

Preferably, the top fixedly connected with inlet pipe of feedwell, the bottom of inlet pipe runs through the top that extends to the equalizing bin, the feed inlet has been seted up at the top of equalizing bin, the bottom of inlet pipe contacts with the top of feed inlet.

Preferably, a material baffle is arranged on one side of the top of the table to be processed, the material baffle is arranged right opposite to the material conveying pipeline, and the material baffle is made of elastic buffering materials.

Preferably, one side of conveyer is equipped with the processing district, the bottom both ends symmetry sliding connection of transfer box has the slide rail, two be equipped with the pneumatic cylinder between the slide rail, the telescopic shaft of pneumatic cylinder and one side outer wall fixed connection of transfer box.

Preferably, the inside one end of transfer box is first sleeve of fixedly connected with and second sleeve respectively, be provided with the second driving motor that is the level setting in the first sleeve, the first initiative bevel gear of second driving motor's the first initiative bevel gear of output fixedly connected with, the meshing of one side of first initiative bevel gear is connected with first driven bevel gear, one side of first driven bevel gear runs through the pivot and extends to second sleeve internal fixedly connected with second initiative bevel gear, the meshing of one side of second initiative bevel gear is connected with second driven bevel gear, one side of first driven bevel gear and second driven bevel gear is first screw rod of fixedly connected with and second screw rod respectively.

Preferably, the meshing of bottom one side of first screw rod is connected with first gear, the meshing of the bottom of first gear is connected with first rack plate, the one end fixedly connected with ejector pin of first rack plate, the ejector pin runs through the one end fixedly connected with kicking block that extends to the transport box outside.

Preferably, a second gear is meshed and connected to one side of the top of the second screw, a connecting plate is arranged at the top of the second gear, a second rack plate is fixedly connected to the bottom of one end of the connecting plate, the second rack plate is meshed and connected with the second gear, and a third rack plate is fixedly connected to the top of the other end of the connecting plate.

Preferably, the inside front end of transfer box is equipped with the third gear, the positive and negative screw rod of one side fixedly connected with of third gear, threaded connection has the carriage release lever, two is run through to the both ends symmetry of positive and negative screw rod the carriage release lever runs through the one end fixedly connected with arc splint that extend to the transfer box outside.

Compared with the prior art, the invention has the following advantages:

1. the automatic quantitative feeding device adopts the interaction fit among the feeding barrel, the first driving motor, the first worm wheel, the driving wheel, the driven wheel, the second worm wheel, the disc, the material distributing plate, the first discharge hole and the second discharge hole, can realize automatic feeding and automatic quantitative fixed-distance conveying, improves the efficiency, and thus effectively solves the problems that quantitative uniform feeding cannot be realized and workpieces are easy to block;

2. the invention adopts the cooperation of interaction among the second driving motor, the first driving bevel gear, the first driven bevel gear, the second driving bevel gear, the second driven bevel gear, the first screw, the second screw, the first gear, the second gear, the first rack plate, the ejector rod, the ejector block, the second rack plate, the third gear, the positive and negative screws and the arc-shaped clamping plate, thereby not only realizing the ejection of the workpiece and preventing the arc-shaped clamping plate from being dislocated with the workpiece, but also realizing the stable clamping and positioning of the workpiece through the arc-shaped clamping plate.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic structural view of the present invention as a whole;

fig. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of the interior of a transfer box of a real-time anti-collision device of a numerically-controlled machine tool according to the present invention;

fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a connecting plate of a real-time anti-collision device of a numerically-controlled machine tool according to the present invention;

fig. 4 is an enlarged view of a region a in fig. 2 of the real-time collision preventing device of the numerically-controlled machine tool according to the present invention;

fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of the interior of a feed barrel of a real-time anti-collision device of a numerically-controlled machine tool according to the present invention;

fig. 6 is an enlarged view of a region B in fig. 5 of the real-time collision preventing device of the numerically-controlled machine tool according to the present invention;

fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a disk of a real-time anti-collision device of a numerically-controlled machine tool according to the present invention.

In the figure: 1. a work table; 2. a charging barrel; 3. a conveyor; 4. a delivery pipeline; 5. a table to be processed; 6. a transfer box; 7. a feed pipe; 8. a driving wheel; 9. a driven wheel; 10. a second worm; 11. a second worm gear; 12. a disc; 13. a first discharge port; 14. a second discharge port; 15. feeding pipes; 16. a material distributing plate; 17. a striker plate; 18. a first sleeve; 19. a second sleeve; 20. a second drive motor; 21. a first drive bevel gear; 22. a first driven bevel gear; 23. a second drive bevel gear; 24. a second driven bevel gear; 25. a second screw; 26. a first screw; 27. a first gear; 28. a first rack plate; 29. a top rod; 30. a second gear; 31. a connecting plate; 32. a second rack plate; 33. a third rack plate; 34. a third gear; 35. a positive and negative screw; 36. a travel bar; 37. an arc-shaped splint; 38. a slide rail; 39. a hydraulic cylinder; 40. a processing zone; 41. a material homogenizing barrel; 42. a hollow outer barrel; 43. a first drive motor; 44. a first worm; 45. a first worm gear.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, and not all of the embodiments.

Referring to fig. 1 to 7, a box-type automatic feeding mechanism of a numerical control machine tool comprises a workbench 1, a feeding barrel 2 is arranged at the top of the workbench 1, a conveyor 3 is arranged on one side of the bottom of the feeding barrel 2, one end of the conveyor 3 is connected with a material conveying pipeline 4, one end of the material conveying pipeline 4 is provided with a platform 5 to be processed, one end of the top of the platform 5 to be processed is provided with a cylinder, an expansion shaft of the cylinder is connected with a push plate, one end of the push plate is provided with a transfer box 6, a material homogenizing barrel 41 is arranged inside the feeding barrel 2, the outer wall of the material homogenizing barrel 41 is provided with a hollow outer barrel 42, one end of an inner bottom plate of the feeding barrel 2 is provided with a first driving motor 43 which is horizontally arranged, an output end of the first driving motor 43 is fixedly connected with a first worm 44, one end of the first worm 44 is engaged with a first worm wheel 45, the top end of the first worm wheel 45 is fixedly connected with the bottom center of the material homogenizing barrel 41 through a rotating shaft, the one end fixedly connected with action wheel 8 of first worm 44, the top of action wheel 8 is connected with from driving wheel 9 through the belt rotation, from one side fixedly connected with second worm 10 of driving wheel 9, the one end meshing of second worm 10 is connected with second worm wheel 11, fixedly connected with disc 12 in extending to the homocline logical through is run through the pivot to the bottom of second worm wheel 11, the equidistant welding in top of disc 12 has a plurality of branch flitchs 16 that are crooked slope setting, first discharge gate 13 and second discharge gate 14 have been seted up respectively to one side of homocline bucket 41 and hollow outer bucket 42, the one end of second discharge gate 14 is connected with the material loading pipe 15 that is the slope setting, the bottom of material loading pipe 15 is connected with conveyer 3.

Further, in the above technical scheme, the calibers of the first discharge port 13 and the second discharge port 14 are the same, and the outer wall of the equalizing barrel 41 is in contact with the inner wall of the hollow outer barrel 42, so that the workpieces can be smoothly discharged from the first discharge port 13 and the second discharge port 14 one by one, interference caused by non-correspondence is avoided, and efficiency is improved.

Further, in above-mentioned technical scheme, the top fixedly connected with inlet pipe 7 of feed cylinder 2, the bottom of inlet pipe 7 runs through the top that extends to equalizing bucket 41, the feed inlet has been seted up at equalizing bucket 41's top, the bottom of inlet pipe 7 contacts with the top of feed inlet.

Further, in the above technical scheme, top one side of treating processing platform 5 is equipped with striker plate 17, striker plate 17 sets up just opposite at conveying pipeline 4, striker plate 17 is made by the elastic buffer material, through the effect of striker plate 17 of making by the elastic buffer material to can effectually prevent that the work piece from dashing out because inertial effect and treating processing platform 5, can also play the effect of buffer protection to the work piece simultaneously.

Further, in above-mentioned technical scheme, one side of conveyer 3 is equipped with processing district 40, there are slide rail 38, two at the bottom both ends symmetry sliding connection of transfer box 6 be equipped with pneumatic cylinder 39 between the slide rail 38, the telescopic shaft of pneumatic cylinder 39 and one side outer wall fixed connection of transfer box 6, through the effect of pneumatic cylinder 39 and slide rail 38 to be convenient for carry out automatic the shifting to transfer box 6.

Further, in the above technical solution, one end of the interior of the transfer box 6 is fixedly connected with a first sleeve 18 and a second sleeve 19, a second driving motor 20 horizontally disposed is disposed in the first sleeve 18, an output end of the second driving motor 20 is fixedly connected with a first driving bevel gear 21, one side of the first driving bevel gear 21 is engaged with a first driven bevel gear 22, one side of the first driven bevel gear 22 extends into the second sleeve 19 through a rotating shaft and is fixedly connected with a second driving bevel gear 23, one side of the second driving bevel gear 23 is engaged with a second driven bevel gear 24, one sides of the first driven bevel gear 22 and the second driven bevel gear 24 are fixedly connected with a first screw 26 and a second screw 25, one side of the bottom of the first screw 26 is engaged with a first gear 27, and the bottom of the first gear 27 is engaged with a first rack plate 28, the one end fixedly connected with ejector pin 29 of first rack plate 28, ejector pin 29 runs through the one end fixedly connected with kicking block that extends to the transport box 6 outside, top one side meshing of second screw rod 25 is connected with second gear 30, the top of second gear 30 is equipped with connecting plate 31, the one end bottom fixedly connected with second rack plate 32 of connecting plate 31, second rack plate 32 is connected with the meshing of second gear 30, the other end top fixedly connected with third rack plate 33 of connecting plate 31, the inside front end of transport box 6 is equipped with third gear 34, one side fixedly connected with positive and negative screw rod 35 of third gear 34, the both ends symmetry run through threaded connection of positive and negative screw rod 35 has the carriage release lever 36, two the carriage release lever 36 runs through the one end fixedly connected with arc splint 37 that extends to the transport box 6 outside, through starting second driving motor 20 work, the first driving bevel gear 21 is rotationally engaged to drive the first driven bevel gear 22 to rotate, the first driven bevel gear 22 rotates to drive the second driving bevel gear 23 to rotate through the rotating shaft, the second driving bevel gear 23 is rotationally engaged to drive the second driven bevel gear 24 to rotate, the first driven bevel gear 22 and the second driven bevel gear 24 rotate to drive the first screw 26 and the second screw 25 to rotate, so that the first screw 26 and the second screw 25 rotate to respectively engage to drive the first gear 27 and the second gear 30 to rotate, the first gear 27 is rotationally engaged to drive the first rack plate 28 to move so as to drive the ejector rod 29 and the ejector block to move so as to eject a workpiece, meanwhile, the second gear 30 is rotationally engaged to drive the second rack plate 32 to move, the second rack plate 32 moves to drive the third rack plate 33 to move so as to drive the third gear 34 to rotate, the positive and negative screws 35 drive the two arc-shaped clamping plates 37 to move until the workpiece is clamped, the stable clamping and positioning of the workpiece are realized.

The working principle is as follows: firstly, a first driving motor 43 is started to work, then the first driving motor 43 drives a first worm 44 to rotate, the first worm 44 is meshed to drive a first worm wheel 45 to rotate, the first worm wheel 45 rotates to drive a material equalizing barrel 41 to rotate through a rotating shaft, at the moment, when a workpiece falls through a feeding pipe 7 and the feeding hole is positioned on the same axis, the workpiece falls onto a disc 12 in the material equalizing barrel 41, meanwhile, the first worm 44 rotates to drive a driving wheel 8 to rotate, the driving wheel 8 rotates to drive a driven wheel 9 to rotate through a belt, the driven wheel 9 rotates to drive a second worm 10 to rotate, the second worm 10 is meshed to drive a second worm wheel 11 to rotate, then, the second worm wheel 11 rotates to drive the disc 12 and a plurality of material distributing plates 16 which are arranged in a bending and inclining mode through the rotating shaft, when a first discharging hole 13 on one side of the material equalizing barrel 41 is overlapped with a second discharging hole 14 on one side of a hollow outer barrel 42, the workpiece can be conveyed to the conveyor 3 from the first discharge port 13, the second discharge port 14 and the feeding pipe 15, then conveyed to the table 5 to be processed by the conveyor 3, and is blocked by the baffle plate 17 made of elastic buffer material, then the cylinder is started to work, the telescopic shaft of the cylinder drives the push plate to push the workpiece to between the two arc-shaped clamping plates 37, then the second driving motor 20 is started to work, the second driving motor 20 drives the first driving bevel gear 21 to rotate, the first driving bevel gear 21 is rotationally engaged to drive the first driven bevel gear 22 to rotate, the first driven bevel gear 22 is rotated to drive the second driving bevel gear 23 to rotate through the rotating shaft, the second driving bevel gear 23 is rotationally engaged to drive the second driven bevel gear 24 to rotate, then the first driven bevel gear 22 and the second driven bevel gear 24 are rotated to drive the first screw 26 and the second screw 25 to rotate, the first screw 26 and the second screw 25 are respectively engaged to drive the first gear 27 and the second gear 30 to rotate, the first gear 27 is meshed in a rotating mode to drive the first rack plate 28 to move so as to drive the ejector rod 29 and the ejector block to move to eject a workpiece, meanwhile, the second gear 30 is meshed in a rotating mode to drive the second rack plate 32 to move, the second rack plate 32 moves to drive the third rack plate 33 to move so as to drive the third gear 34 to rotate, the two arc-shaped clamping plates 37 are driven through the positive and negative screws 35 to move until the workpiece is clamped tightly, the hydraulic cylinder 39 is started at last to work, and the hydraulic cylinder 39 drives the transfer box 6 through the telescopic shaft to move to the machining area 40 through the sliding rail 38 to be machined.

The previous description is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the various aspects described herein. Various modifications to these aspects will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other aspects. Thus, the claims are not intended to be limited to the aspects shown herein, but is to be accorded the full scope consistent with the language claims, wherein reference to an element in the singular is not intended to mean "one and only one" unless specifically so stated, but rather "one or more.