阅读说明：本技术 一种角度可调节的大倾角带式全封闭样品输送机 (Angle-adjustable belt type full-closed sample conveyor with large inclination angle ) 是由 王兴 窦波 董蔚 于 2021-10-11 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明涉及带式运输技术领域,且公开了一种角度可调节的大倾角带式全封闭样品输送机,包括驱动机,驱动机一侧固定安装有驱动支架,通过固定盘的外表面活动套接有外壳结构且驱动机可驱动外壳结构进行转动,外壳结构在转动的过程中固定盘保持静止的状态,而转动盘是以活动套接的方式与外壳结构连接,保证导轮Ⅱ轴线所在的平面与导轮Ⅰ的轴线和动力机输出轴的轴线所在的平面保持平行,此时运输带上表面M与下表面N之间的距离减小,使位于M处的可调节隔板的升出长度增加,从而使得该装置在倾斜角度增大的过程中用于分隔的可调节隔板的升出长度也在增加,避免了该装置在大倾角的作用下导致样品发生滚落的问题,提高了该装置对样品位置的限制能力。(The invention relates to the technical field of belt type transportation, and discloses a large-inclination-angle adjustable belt type totally-enclosed sample conveyor, which comprises a driving machine, wherein a driving support is fixedly arranged on one side of the driving machine, a shell structure is movably sleeved on the outer surface of a fixed disc, the driving machine can drive the shell structure to rotate, the fixed disc is kept in a static state in the rotating process of the shell structure, and the rotating disc is connected with the shell structure in a movably sleeved mode, so that the plane where the axis of a guide wheel II is positioned is kept parallel to the axis of a guide wheel I and the plane where the axis of an output shaft of a power machine is positioned, the distance between the upper surface M and the lower surface N of a conveying belt is reduced, the lifting length of an adjustable partition plate positioned at the position M is increased, the lifting length of the adjustable partition plate for separating in the process of increasing the inclination angle of the device is also increased, and the problem that a sample is rolled down under the action of a large inclination angle is avoided, the ability of the device to limit the position of the sample is improved.)

1. The utility model provides a totally closed sample conveyer of big inclination belt with adjustable angle, includes driving machine (1), its characterized in that: fixed mounting has drive support (2) on the position that driver (1) one side just is close to both ends, one side fixed mounting of drive support (2) has fixed disk (3), guide pulley I (4) have been cup jointed in the activity on the position that fixed disk (3) one side is close to the top, and guide pulley I (4) run through drive support (2) and cup joint with drive support (2) activity, conveyer (5) have been cup jointed in the surface activity of guide pulley I (4), the opposite side fixed mounting of drive support (2) has engine (6), and the output shaft of engine (6) runs through drive support (2) and fixed disk (3) and cup joints with conveyer (5) activity, the surface activity of fixed disk (3) has been cup jointed shell structure (7) and driver (1) can drive shell structure (7) and rotate, round through-hole and this round through-hole and fixed disk have been seted up on the position that shell structure (7) both sides are close to one end (3) The movable sleeve joint, one side of the shell structure (7) is positioned on the outer side of the fixed disc (3) and is provided with arc holes (8), the number of the arc holes (8) is two, the radian is ninety degrees, the output shaft of the guide wheel I (4) and the power machine (6) respectively penetrates through the arc holes (8), the top of the shell structure (7) is close to one end of the position and is provided with a feeding hole (9), the top of the shell structure (7) is close to the feeding hole (9) and is provided with a rectangular hole, the inside of the rectangular hole is movably sleeved with a limiting device (10), the bottom of the shell structure (7) is provided with a reset groove (11), the bottom of the shell structure (7) is fixedly provided with a guide plate (12) at the position close to one end of the reset groove (11), and the two sides of the shell structure (7) are movably sleeved with a rotating disc (13) at the position close to the other end, guide wheels II (14) are movably sleeved on one side of the rotating disc (13), the number of the guide wheels II (14) is two, and the guide wheels II (14) are movably sleeved with the conveying device (5).

2. The wide-inclination angle belt-type fully-enclosed sample conveyor with adjustable angles according to claim 1, is characterized in that: conveyer (5) including conveyer belt (51), conveyer belt (51) cup joint with the one end activity of guide pulley I (4) and guide pulley II (14) and engine (6) output shaft, conveyer belt (51) surface has been seted up stroke hole (52) and has been distributed along the extending direction array on conveyer belt (51) surface, adjustable baffle (53) have been cup jointed in the inside activity of stroke hole (52), the top of adjustable baffle (53) contacts with limiting device (10), fixed mounting has stopper (54) on the position that the both sides of adjustable baffle (53) are close to both ends.

3. The wide-inclination angle belt-type fully-enclosed sample conveyor with adjustable angles according to claim 2, is characterized in that: limiting device (10) is including restriction storehouse (101), restriction groove (102) and restriction groove (102) width are seted up to restriction storehouse (101) bottom and are less than the interval between adjustable baffle (53), the bottom of restriction storehouse (101) contacts with the top of adjustable baffle (53), the both sides fixed mounting at restriction storehouse (101) top has stroke frame (103), stroke pole (104) and stroke pole (104) fixed mounting are cup jointed in the both sides activity of stroke frame (103) bottom at the top of shell structure (7), the top fixed mounting of stroke pole (104) has spacing piece (105), the top fixed connection of one end and stroke frame (103) of fixed mounting spring (106) and spring (106) on the position that spacing piece (105) bottom is located stroke pole (104) outside.

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of belt type transportation, in particular to a large-inclination-angle belt type fully-closed sample conveyor with an adjustable angle.

Background

The conveyer is a very common transportation device, can see its shadow in trades such as building, smelting, mineral products, under some service environment that require comparatively strictly, need seal the processing to the conveyer, come to avoid the pollution of external environment to inside sample, and the position of pan feeding and ejection of compact when having certain difference in height, still need adjust the inclination of conveyer, current conveyer adopts the engine to drive the conveyer belt basically and rotates, and some baffles can be installed on the surface of conveyer belt, come to separate the sample on conveyer belt surface, avoid obscuring each other, this also is the most extensive closed conveyer of present application range, has simple structure, high durability and convenient use, advantages such as maintenance low cost.

Although the existing closed sample conveyor has many advantages, a certain limitation still exists in the process of daily practical use, when the closed sample conveyor is in a large inclination angle state, the weight of a sample mainly acts on the surface of a partition plate on a conveyor belt, so that the actual conveying capacity of the conveyor is greatly reduced, the sample is very easy to slide off the partition plate and mix with samples at other positions, and meanwhile, the sample is easy to be damaged.

Disclosure of Invention

Aiming at the defects of the prior angle-adjustable belt-type fully-closed sample conveyor with a large inclination angle in the use process, the invention provides the angle-adjustable belt-type fully-closed sample conveyor with the large inclination angle, which has the advantage that the extension length of a partition plate under the large inclination angle is synchronously increased, and solves the problem that the conveying capacity of the traditional conveyor is reduced under the large inclination angle.

The invention provides the following technical scheme: the angle-adjustable large-inclination belt type totally-enclosed sample conveyor comprises a driving machine, wherein a driving support is fixedly mounted on one side of the driving machine and close to the positions of two ends of the driving machine, a fixed disc is fixedly mounted on one side of the driving support, a guide wheel I is movably sleeved on the position, close to the top, of one side of the fixed disc, a guide wheel I penetrates through the driving support and is movably sleeved with the driving support, a conveying device is movably sleeved on the outer surface of the guide wheel I, a power machine is fixedly mounted on the other side of the driving support, an output shaft of the power machine penetrates through the driving support and the fixed disc and is movably sleeved with the conveying device, an outer surface of the fixed disc is movably sleeved with a shell structure, the driving machine can drive the shell structure to rotate, a circular through hole is formed in the position, close to one end, of two sides of the shell structure, the circular through hole is movably sleeved with the fixed disc, an arc-shaped hole is formed in the position, which is positioned outside the fixed disc, of one side of the shell structure, the quantity in arc hole is two and the radian is ninety degrees, the output shaft of guide pulley I and engine passes from the arc hole respectively, the pan feeding hole has been seted up on the position that the shell structure top is close to one end, the inside activity that has seted up rectangular hole and this rectangular hole on the position that the shell structure top is close to the pan feeding hole is cup jointed limited device, the groove that resets has been seted up to the bottom of shell structure, fixed mounting has the deflector in the shell structure bottom and on being close to the position that resets groove one end, the activity has been cup jointed the rolling disc on the position that the shell structure both sides are close to the other end, the quantity that guide pulley II and guide pulley II have been cup jointed in the activity of rolling disc one side is two, guide pulley II cup joints with the conveyer activity.

Preferably, the conveyer includes the conveyer belt, the conveyer belt cup joints with the one end activity of guide pulley I and guide pulley II and engine output shaft, the conveyer belt surface has been seted up the stroke hole and the stroke hole is along the extending direction array distribution on conveyer belt surface, the inside activity in stroke hole has cup jointed adjustable baffle, the top of adjustable baffle contacts with limiting device, fixed mounting has the stopper on the position that the both sides of adjustable baffle are close to both ends.

Preferably, the limiting device comprises a limiting bin, the bottom of the limiting bin is provided with a limiting groove, the width of the limiting groove is smaller than the distance between the adjustable partition plates, the bottom of the limiting bin is in contact with the top of the adjustable partition plates, stroke rods are movably sleeved on two sides of the bottom of the stroke rack and are fixedly mounted at the top of the shell structure, limiting pieces are fixedly mounted at the tops of the stroke rods, and one ends of the springs and the top of the stroke rack are fixedly connected to the positions, located on the outer sides of the stroke rods, of the bottoms of the limiting pieces.

The invention has the following beneficial effects:

1. the outer surface of the fixed disc is movably sleeved with the shell structure, the driving machine can drive the shell structure to rotate, the driving machine can drive the shell structure to adjust the angle, the fixed disc is fixedly connected with the driving support, the fixed disc is kept in a static state in the rotating process of the shell structure, the rotating disc is movably sleeved with the shell structure, the guide wheel I, the guide wheel II and the output shaft of the power machine are sleeved with the conveying belt, the length of the conveying belt is a fixed value, the rotating disc rotates around the axis of the rotating disc after the shell structure rotates and forms a certain included angle with the horizontal plane, the plane where the axis of the guide wheel II is located is kept parallel to the plane where the axis of the guide wheel I is located and the axis of the output shaft of the power machine are located, the conveying belt is prevented from being excessively pulled, and the distance between the upper surface M and the lower surface N of the conveying belt is reduced, the bottom of the adjustable partition plate located at the position M can receive an upward acting force along the vertical direction and generate displacement, the lifting length of the adjustable partition plate located at the position M is increased, the lifting length of the adjustable partition plate used for separating in the process of increasing the inclination angle of the device is increased, the problem that a sample rolls off under the action of a large inclination angle of the device is avoided, the limiting capacity of the device on the position of the sample is improved, meanwhile, the problem that the top of the adjustable partition plate cannot collide with the surface of the inner cavity of the shell structure due to overlarge extending amount when the inclination angle of the device is zero or the inclination angle is small and the distance between the upper surface M of the conveying belt and the surface of the inner cavity of the shell structure is small is solved, and the running stability of the device is improved.

2. The invention enables the top of the adjustable clapboard to be contacted with the bottom of the limit bin while the adjustable clapboard moves under the driving of the conveyer belt by contacting the bottom of the limit bin with the top of the adjustable clapboard, thereby leading the conveyer belt, the adjustable clapboard and the limit bin to form a closed cavity, leading the problem of goods fleeing among samples at different positions at the top of the conveyer belt not to occur, improving the stability of the device for sample transportation, simultaneously, when the number of the samples entering from the feeding hole is too large, the bottom of the limit bin is provided with the limit groove to lead the section of the bottom of the limit bin to present continuous protruding parts which can extend into the cavity formed between the adjustable clapboards in the running process of the conveyer belt, leading the height of the samples carried in the cavity between the adjustable clapboards to be always lower than the rising height of the adjustable clapboard, the problem that the inner wall of the shell structure is in contact friction to cause sample damage due to the fact that the height of the bearing sample is too high is avoided, the protection capability of the device is improved, the problem that the sample enters an adjacent containing cavity in the process of running of a conveying belt due to too much sample and causes channel conflict is avoided, and the stability of the device for sample transportation is further improved.

3. The adjustable partition plate is fixedly provided with the limiting blocks at the positions, close to the two ends, of the two sides of the adjustable partition plate, so that the adjustable partition plate is limited by the adjustable partition plate and cannot be completely separated from the stroke hole in the process of sliding in the stroke hole, the adjustable partition plate is reset under the action of gravity when running to the reset groove, the limiting blocks and the conveying belt collide once and generate sound in the resetting process, the sound frequency is constant due to the fact that the conveying belt rotates at a constant speed, an operator can judge the running condition of the equipment according to the fact that the sound intervals are the same or not, the operator can still know the running condition of the equipment visually when the device is sealed and cannot directly observe the internal condition, and the practicability of the device is improved.

Drawings

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

FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the structure of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of the structural driving structure of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a structural driving structure of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic structural view of a structural housing of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic sectional front view of the structural shell structure of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic top sectional view of a structural shell structure of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a schematic view of a structural transporter in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a front schematic view of a structural transporter in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a schematic cross-sectional view taken along direction A in FIG. 9 according to the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a schematic view of a structural restraint device of the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a structural restraint device of the present invention;

FIG. 13 is an enlarged view of the point B in FIG. 12.

In the figure: 1. a driver; 2. a drive bracket; 3. fixing the disc; 4. a guide wheel I; 5. a transportation device; 51. a conveyor belt; 52. a travel hole; 53. an adjustable baffle; 54. a limiting block; 6. a power machine; 7. a housing structure; 8. an arc-shaped hole; 9. a feeding hole; 10. a restriction device; 101. a restricted bin; 102. a limiting groove; 103. a stroke frame; 104. a trip lever; 105. a limiting sheet; 106. a spring; 11. a reset groove; 12. a guide plate; 13. rotating the disc; 14. and a guide wheel II.

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. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

Referring to fig. 1-4, the angle-adjustable belt-type totally-enclosed sample conveyor with large inclination angle comprises a driving machine 1, a driving support 2 is fixedly mounted on one side of the driving machine 1 and close to two ends of the driving machine, a fixed disc 3 is fixedly mounted on one side of the driving support 2, a guide wheel I4 is movably sleeved on one side of the fixed disc 3 and close to the top of the fixed disc, the guide wheel I4 penetrates through the driving support 2 and is movably sleeved with the driving support 2, and a conveying device 5 is movably sleeved on the outer surface of the guide wheel I4.

Referring to fig. 1-4 and 8-10, the conveyer 5 includes a conveyer belt 51, the conveyer belt 51 is movably sleeved with a guide wheel i 4, a guide wheel ii 14 and one end of an output shaft of the power machine 6, the outer surface of the conveyer belt 51 is provided with a stroke hole 52, the stroke holes 52 are distributed in an array along the extending direction of the surface of the conveyer belt 51, an adjustable partition plate 53 is movably sleeved inside the stroke hole 52, the top of the adjustable partition plate 53 contacts with the limiting device 10, the positions of two sides of the adjustable partition plate 53 near two ends are fixedly provided with a limiting block 54, so that the adjustable partition plate 53 is limited by the limiting block 54 during the sliding inside of the stroke hole 52 and cannot be completely separated from the stroke hole 52, and when the adjustable partition plate 53 runs to the reset groove 11, the adjustable partition plate 53 is reset under the action of gravity, and the limiting block 54 impacts the conveyer belt 51 once during the reset process to generate sound, because the transport belt 51 is the rotation at the uniform velocity and makes this sound frequency certain for whether operating personnel can judge the operational aspect of this equipment through the interval of sound is the same, guarantee the device sealed back and can't make operating personnel audio-visual understanding equipment's operational aspect when the internal conditions of direct observation, improved the device practicality.

Referring to fig. 1-10, a power machine 6 is fixedly mounted on the other side of the driving bracket 2, an output shaft of the power machine 6 penetrates through the driving bracket 2 and the fixed disk 3 and is movably sleeved with the transportation device 5, the outer surface of the fixed disk 3 is movably sleeved with the shell structure 7, the driving machine 1 can drive the shell structure 7 to rotate, so that the driving machine 1 can drive the shell structure 7 to perform angle adjustment, because the fixed disk 3 is fixedly mounted with the driving bracket 2, the fixed disk 3 keeps a static state in the rotating process of the shell structure 7, and the rotating disk 13 is movably sleeved with the shell structure 7, because the guide wheel i 4, the guide wheel ii 14 and the output shaft of the power machine 6 are all sleeved with the transportation belt 51, and the length of the transportation belt 51 is a fixed value, the rotating disk 13 rotates around the axis thereof after the shell structure 7 rotates and forms a certain included angle with the horizontal plane, therefore, the plane where the axis of the guide wheel II 14 is located is kept parallel to the axis of the guide wheel I4 and the plane where the axis of the output shaft of the power machine 6 is located, and meanwhile, the conveyor belt 51 is prevented from being excessively pulled, at the moment, the distance between the upper surface M and the lower surface N of the conveyor belt 51 is reduced, so that the bottom of the adjustable partition plate 53 located at the position M is subjected to an upward acting force along the vertical direction in the drawing 10 and is displaced, the rising length of the adjustable partition plate 53 located at the position M is increased, the rising length of the adjustable partition plate 53 used for separating the device is increased in the process of increasing the inclination angle, the problem that a sample rolls down under the action of a large inclination angle is avoided, the limiting capacity of the device on the position of the sample is improved, and the problem that the top of the adjustable partition plate 53 does not extend out when the inclination angle is zero or the inclination angle is small and the distance between the upper surface M of the conveyor belt 51 and the inner cavity surface of the shell structure 7 is small is also avoided The device has the advantages that the device has the problem that the device is abnormally operated due to the collision with the surface of the inner cavity of the shell structure 7 caused by the excessive amount, and the operation stability of the device is improved.

Referring to fig. 1-7, circular through holes are formed in positions of two sides of the housing structure 7 near one end and movably sleeved with the fixed disk 3, arc-shaped holes 8 are formed in positions of one side of the housing structure 7 outside the fixed disk 3, the number of the arc-shaped holes 8 is two, the radian of each arc-shaped hole 8 is ninety degrees, the guide wheel i 4 and the output shaft of the power machine 6 respectively penetrate through the arc-shaped holes 8, a feeding hole 9 is formed in a position of the top of the housing structure 7 near one end, a rectangular hole is formed in a position of the top of the housing structure 7 near the feeding hole 9, and a limiting device 10 is movably sleeved inside the rectangular hole.

Referring to fig. 1-13, the limiting device 10 includes a limiting bin 101, a limiting slot 102 is formed at the bottom of the limiting bin 101, the width of the limiting slot 102 is smaller than the distance between the adjustable partition boards 53, the bottom of the limiting bin 101 contacts with the top of the adjustable partition board 53, so that the adjustable partition board 53 contacts with the bottom of the limiting bin 101 while the adjustable partition board 53 moves under the driving of the conveyer belt 51, and the conveyer belt 51, the adjustable partition board 53 and the limiting bin 101 form a relatively closed cavity, so that the problem of channel conflict among samples at different positions on the top of the conveyer belt 51 is avoided, the stability of the device in sample transportation is improved, and when the number of samples entering from the feeding hole 9 is too large, the limiting slot 102 is formed at the bottom of the limiting bin 101, so that the cross section of the bottom of the limiting bin 101 presents continuous protruding portions, and the protruding portions can extend into the cavity formed between the adjustable partition boards 53 in the running process of the conveyer belt 51 In the cavity, therefore, the height of a sample loaded in the accommodating cavity between the adjustable partition plates 53 is always lower than the lifting height of the adjustable partition plates 53, the problem that the sample is damaged due to the fact that the height of the loaded sample is too high and the inner wall of the shell structure 7 is in contact friction is avoided, the protection capability of the device is improved, the problem that the sample is too much and enters the adjacent accommodating cavity in the running process of the conveying belt 51 to cause channel conflict is also avoided, and the stability of the device for sample transportation is further improved.

Referring to fig. 1-7 and 11-13, stroke frames 103 are fixedly mounted on two sides of the top of the limiting bin 101, stroke rods 104 are movably sleeved on two sides of the bottom of the stroke frames 103, the stroke rods 104 are fixedly mounted on the top of the shell structure 7, limiting pieces 105 are fixedly mounted on the top of the stroke rods 104, springs 106 are fixedly mounted at positions, located on the outer sides of the stroke rods 104, of the bottoms of the limiting pieces 105, one ends of the springs 106 are fixedly connected with the top of the stroke frames 103, a reset groove 11 is formed in the bottom of the shell structure 7, guide plates 12 are fixedly mounted at positions, located at the bottom of the shell structure 7 and close to one end of the reset groove 11, rotating discs 13 are movably sleeved at positions, located at two ends of the two sides of the shell structure 7, guide wheels ii 14 are movably sleeved at one side of the rotating discs 13, the number of the guide wheels ii 14 is two, and the guide wheels ii 14 are movably sleeved with the transportation device 5.

The using method of the invention is as follows:

the driving machine 1 can drive the shell structure 7 to adjust the angle, the fixed disk 3 is connected with the driving support 2 in a fixed mounting mode, the fixed disk 3 is kept in a static state in the rotating process of the shell structure 7, the rotating disk 13 is connected with the shell structure 7 in a movable sleeving mode, the output shafts of the guide wheel I4, the guide wheel II 14 and the power machine 6 are all sleeved with the conveying belt 51, the length of the conveying belt 51 is a fixed value, after the shell structure 7 rotates and forms a certain included angle with the horizontal plane, the rotating disk 13 rotates around the axis of the rotating disk, the plane where the axis of the guide wheel II 14 is located is kept parallel to the axis of the guide wheel I4 and the plane where the axis of the output shaft of the power machine 6 is located, the conveying belt 51 is prevented from being excessively pulled, the distance between the upper surface M and the lower surface N of the conveying belt 51 is reduced, and the bottom of the adjustable partition plate 53 located at the position M can be acted by upward force along the vertical direction in the drawing 10 And displacement occurs to increase the lift-out length of the adjustable partition 53 located at M, so that the lift-out length of the adjustable partition 53 for partitioning is also increased during the increase of the inclination angle of the device, the top of the adjustable partition 53 contacts the bottom of the limiting bin 101 while the adjustable partition 53 moves under the driving of the conveyor belt 51, so that the conveyer belt 51, the adjustable partition 53 and the limiting bin 101 form a relatively closed cavity, when the number of samples entering from the feeding hole 9 is excessive, since the bottom of the restraining bin 101 is provided with the restraining groove 102 so that the cross section of the bottom of the restraining bin 101 presents a continuous protruding part, these projections will project into the cavity formed between the adjustable partitions 53 during operation of the conveyor belt 51, so that the height of the sample carried in the chamber between the adjustable partitions 53 is always lower than the lift-out height of the adjustable partitions 53.

The adjustable partition plate 53 is limited by the adjustable partition plate 53 in the process of sliding inside the stroke hole 52 and cannot be completely separated from the stroke hole 52, when the adjustable partition plate 53 runs to the reset groove 11, the adjustable partition plate 53 is reset under the action of gravity, the limit block 54 can collide with the conveyer belt 51 once and generate sound in the resetting process, the sound frequency is constant due to the uniform rotation of the conveyer belt 51, and an operator can judge the running condition of the equipment according to whether the intervals of the sound are the same or not.

It is noted that, herein, relational terms such as first and second, and the like may be used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions. Also, the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus.

Although embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes, modifications, substitutions and alterations can be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined in the appended claims and their equivalents.