阅读说明：本技术 一种可均匀出胶并对余胶进行清理的软包锂电芯侧边封胶装置 (Soft packet of lithium cell side molding equipment that can evenly go out to glue and clear up surplus glue ) 是由 李桂洪 吴少华 何学祥 于 2021-07-02 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明公开了一种可均匀出胶并对余胶进行清理的软包锂电芯侧边封胶装置,包括操作台,水平放置在加工车间的地面上,输送带,转动设置在所述操作台上表面中间位置,固化箱,固定安装在所述操作台上表面左侧位置,翻转机构,安装在所述翻转板左右两侧,上料罐,固定安装在所述条形安装板上方。该可均匀出胶并对余胶进行清理的软包锂电芯侧边封胶装置,采用新型的结构设计,在装置上料罐内部增加搅拌杆和过滤网,防止长时间使用后出现堵塞出胶不均匀的情况,并且在操作台内侧设置倾斜挡板,可以在下模具经过时利用其前端安装的刮刀将余胶刮下,同时在面对规则形状电芯时可以更换成传统的贴胶条方式进行封胶,提高工作效率和节省材料。(The invention discloses a soft package lithium battery cell side edge glue sealing device capable of uniformly discharging glue and cleaning residual glue. This can evenly go out to glue and carry out soft packet of lithium cell side molding equipment that clears up to the surplus glue, adopt neotype structural design, at inside puddler and the filter screen of increasing of device material loading bucket, prevent to block up out the inhomogeneous condition of gluing after long-time using, and set up the slope baffle in the operation panel inboard, can utilize the scraper of its front end installation to scrape the surplus glue when the bed die process, can change into traditional rubberizing strip mode and seal the glue when facing regular shape electricity core simultaneously, improve work efficiency and save material.)

1. The utility model provides a can evenly go out to glue and carry out soft packet of lithium cell side sealing device of clearance to surplus glue, its characterized in that: the method comprises the following steps:

the left end and the right end of the operating platform are respectively butted with the upper machining mechanism and the lower machining mechanism;

The conveying belt is rotatably arranged in the middle of the upper surface of the operating platform, and a gap is formed between the side surface of the conveying belt and the operating platform;

the curing box is fixedly arranged at the left side position of the upper surface of the operating table, and an ultraviolet lamp capable of accelerating the curing of the glue is arranged in the curing box;

the square mounting plate is fixedly mounted in the middle position above the operating platform by using screws, and the square mounting plate is provided with a tape sticking mechanism capable of automatically sticking a tape;

the turnover plate is arranged on the inner side of the rubberizing mechanism, and an electric push rod capable of pushing the rubberizing mechanism to move back and forth is arranged on the side face of the turnover plate;

the turnover mechanisms are arranged on the left side and the right side of the turnover plate and are mounted with the turnover plate through bearings;

the discharging roller is rotatably mounted on the upper surface of the square mounting plate, and an edge sealing adhesive tape for performing edge sealing operation on the lithium battery cell is wound on the outer side of the discharging roller;

the strip-shaped mounting plate can be fixedly mounted in the middle of the upper surface of the operating platform by replacing the square mounting plate through screws;

the feeding tank is fixedly arranged above the strip-shaped mounting plate, and a stirring rod capable of preventing the glue raw material from being blocked is rotatably arranged in the feeding tank;

The upper die is fixedly arranged at the discharging position at the bottom end of the charging bucket, and can realize lifting operation;

the lower die is placed on the upper surface of the conveying belt, and grooves for injecting glue are formed in the edge positions of the inner parts of the upper die and the lower die;

the horizontal baffle is symmetrically and movably mounted above the operating table and used for arranging and limiting the lithium battery cores needing to be sealed.

2. The soft-package lithium battery cell side edge glue sealing device capable of uniformly discharging glue and cleaning residual glue according to claim 1, and is characterized in that: the horizontal baffle plate and the operating platform form an elastic structure through a return spring arranged at the rear part, and the rear side surface of the horizontal baffle plate is of an inclined structure.

3. The soft-package lithium battery cell side edge glue sealing device capable of uniformly discharging glue and cleaning residual glue according to claim 1, and is characterized in that: the glue pasting mechanism and the turnover plate form a telescopic structure through an electric push rod, and the turnover plate and the square mounting plate form a rotating structure through a turnover mechanism.

4. The soft-package lithium battery cell side edge glue sealing device capable of uniformly discharging glue and cleaning residual glue according to claim 3, and is characterized in that: the outer side surface of the adhesive tape sticking mechanism is provided with an adsorption hole capable of adsorbing the edge sealing adhesive tape, the adsorption hole and the connecting pipe form a penetrating structure, and the connecting pipe is connected with an external air pump.

5. The soft-package lithium battery cell side edge glue sealing device capable of uniformly discharging glue and cleaning residual glue according to claim 4, characterized in that: the automatic edge sealing adhesive tape clamping device is characterized in that a clamping device capable of automatically clamping the edge sealing adhesive tape is arranged at the top end of the edge sealing adhesive tape, and a linear sliding block is fixedly arranged at the rear end of the clamping device.

6. The soft-package lithium battery cell side edge glue sealing device capable of uniformly discharging glue and cleaning residual glue according to claim 5, and is characterized in that: the linear sliding block and the square mounting plate form a sliding structure through a transmission screw rod, and a cutting knife capable of cutting the edge sealing adhesive tape is arranged at a corresponding position at the rear end of the edge sealing adhesive tape.

7. The soft-package lithium battery cell side edge glue sealing device capable of uniformly discharging glue and cleaning residual glue according to claim 1, and is characterized in that: the operation panel left end inboard is rotated and is installed the slope baffle, just slope baffle top is rotated and is installed and compress tightly the gyro wheel.

8. The soft-package lithium battery cell side edge glue sealing device capable of uniformly discharging glue and cleaning residual glue according to claim 7, is characterized in that: the pressing roller can be detached and replaced by a scraper capable of scraping off redundant glue, and the inclined baffle and the operating platform form an elastic structure through an extrusion spring.

9. The soft-package lithium battery cell side edge glue sealing device capable of uniformly discharging glue and cleaning residual glue according to claim 1, and is characterized in that: the puddler is in the inside multilayer that evenly is provided with of material loading bucket, just material loading bucket internally mounted has the filter screen that can carry out filterable to impurity in the glue raw materials.

10. The soft-package lithium battery cell side edge glue sealing device capable of uniformly discharging glue and cleaning residual glue according to claim 1, and is characterized in that: the material loading bucket is usable the fixed strip split becomes 2 parts, and the filter screen with the material loading bucket is constituteed and is dismantled mounting structure, and material loading bucket front side surface is provided with the observation window who conveniently observes gluey volume and state.

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of soft package lithium battery cell production, in particular to a soft package lithium battery cell side edge glue sealing device capable of uniformly discharging glue and cleaning residual glue.

Background

The soft package lithium cell is widely applied to various high-tech products, for example, the battery in a common notebook computer in our life is generally the soft package lithium cell, and the side edge needs to be sealed in the production process, so that the overall safety is improved.

In the prior art, a chinese patent with an authorization publication number of CN105944928B discloses a method for sealing side edges of a soft package lithium battery core and a sealing machine, which comprises a box body, a feeding mechanism, a CCD detection mechanism, a film pressing and encapsulation structure, a material taking mechanism, a chemical mechanism, a conveyor belt and an upper shell, wherein the top of the box body is provided with the feeding mechanism, the CCD detection mechanism, the film pressing and encapsulation structure and the material taking mechanism, and the CCD detection mechanism is provided with a photographing device; a material taking mechanism is slidably mounted on one side of the film pressing and rubber coating structure through a first sliding rod and a second sliding rod; a causticizing mechanism is arranged on the conveying belt, and a cylindrical radiating pipe is arranged at the top of the causticizing mechanism; the top of the box body is provided with an upper shell, and the bottom of the box body is provided with universal wheels; the bottom of the conveyor belt is provided with a support rod, and the tail end of the support rod is rotatably provided with a support leg; the design of mould die cavity, runner is adopted to it, realizes different shapes, and different sizes are including the glue of sealing of complicated shape electricity core, and the practicality is strong, easily uses widely.

However, in the actual use process, the device may cause the glue feeding device to be blocked after long-term use, so that the glue is not uniformly discharged, the overall glue sealing effect is affected, no effective treatment measure is provided when the glue overflows, and meanwhile, when the glue is sealed for the regular-shaped battery cell, the method is more troublesome and more expensive compared with a method of sticking a tape.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to provide a soft-package lithium battery cell side edge glue sealing device capable of uniformly discharging glue and cleaning residual glue, and aims to solve the problems that glue discharging is not uniform and residual glue cannot be treated possibly after long-time use, and the conventional method is troublesome and wasteful when a regular-shaped battery cell is processed.

In order to achieve the purpose, the invention provides the following technical scheme: the utility model provides a can evenly go out to glue and carry out soft packet of lithium cell side molding equipment who clears up to surplus glue, includes:

the left end and the right end of the operating platform are respectively butted with the upper machining mechanism and the lower machining mechanism;

the conveying belt is rotatably arranged in the middle of the upper surface of the operating platform, and a gap is formed between the side surface of the conveying belt and the operating platform;

The curing box is fixedly arranged at the left side position of the upper surface of the operating table, and an ultraviolet lamp capable of accelerating the curing of the glue is arranged in the curing box;

the square mounting plate is fixedly mounted in the middle position above the operating platform by using screws, and the square mounting plate is provided with a tape sticking mechanism capable of automatically sticking a tape;

the turnover plate is arranged on the inner side of the rubberizing mechanism, and an electric push rod capable of pushing the rubberizing mechanism to move back and forth is arranged on the side face of the turnover plate;

the turnover mechanisms are arranged on the left side and the right side of the turnover plate and are mounted with the turnover plate through bearings;

the discharging roller is rotatably mounted on the upper surface of the square mounting plate, and an edge sealing adhesive tape for performing edge sealing operation on the lithium battery cell is wound on the outer side of the discharging roller;

the strip-shaped mounting plate can be fixedly mounted in the middle of the upper surface of the operating platform by replacing the square mounting plate through screws;

the feeding tank is fixedly arranged above the strip-shaped mounting plate, and a stirring rod capable of preventing the glue raw material from being blocked is rotatably arranged in the feeding tank;

the upper die is fixedly arranged at the discharging position at the bottom end of the charging bucket, and can realize lifting operation;

The lower die is placed on the upper surface of the conveying belt, and grooves for injecting glue are formed in the edge positions of the inner parts of the upper die and the lower die;

the horizontal baffle is symmetrically and movably mounted above the operating table and used for arranging and limiting the lithium battery cores needing to be sealed.

Preferably, the horizontal baffle pass through the reset spring that the rear set up with the elastic construction is constituteed to the operation panel, just the rear side surface of horizontal baffle is slope column structure, and after putting the electric core that will seal the edge on the conveyer belt, horizontal baffle extrudees electric core under reset spring's effect, makes it be in the intermediate position of conveyer belt, prevents that the dislocation's condition from appearing in follow-up processing.

Preferably, the rubberizing mechanism pass through electric putter with the flip board constitutes extending structure, just the flip board pass through tilting mechanism with the rotating-structure is constituteed to square mounting panel, adsorbs the back with the sticky tape at the rubberizing mechanism, drives the flip board through tilting mechanism and rotates, later utilizes electric putter to push away rubberizing mechanism to the position with electric core contact, accomplishes the side rubberizing operation.

Preferably, the adsorption hole that can carry out absorption to the banding sticky tape is seted up on rubberizing mechanism outside surface, just the structure that runs through is constituteed with the connecting pipe to the adsorption hole, and the connecting pipe is connected with outside air pump, and when rubberizing mechanism contacted with the banding sticky tape, the inside vacuum state that inhales into of adsorption hole was passed through to outside air pump to adsorb the banding sticky tape on rubberizing mechanism surface.

Preferably, the top end of the edge sealing adhesive tape is provided with a clamping device capable of clamping the edge sealing adhesive tape, and a linear sliding block is fixedly arranged at the rear end of the clamping device.

Preferably, the linear slider passes through the transmission lead screw with the sliding structure is constituteed to square mounting panel, just the corresponding position in banding sticky tape rear end is provided with the cutting knife that can cut apart it, utilizes clamping device to the top centre gripping of banding sticky tape, later utilizes the rotation of transmission lead screw to make the linear slider drive clamping device remove and pull out the banding sticky tape, finally utilizes the cutting knife to cut off it.

Preferably, the operation panel left end inboard is rotated and is installed the slope baffle, just slope baffle top is rotated and is installed the pinch roller, and when the electric core after utilizing banding sticky tape banding to handle removed the slope baffle position, can make the pinch roller on its top and electric core side produce the extrusion force under extrusion spring's effect to make the banding sticky tape laminating inseparabler.

Preferably, the pinch roller can be dismantled and change into the scraper that can scrape down to glue, just the slope baffle through extrusion spring with the elastic construction is constituteed to the operation panel, when utilizing glue to carry out the banding, will compress tightly the scraper instead of the gyro wheel, utilizes the surplus glue that the scraper will overflow to scrape down when the bed die process, guarantees the whole quality of glue banding.

Preferably, the puddler is in the inside multilayer that evenly is provided with of material loading jar, just material loading jar internally mounted has the filter screen that can carry out the filtration to impurity in the glue raw materials, and the puddler of the in-process inside that material loading jar used constantly rotates to utilize the filter screen to filter impurity when the ejection of compact, prevent to appear blockking up and cause out the inhomogeneous condition of gluing.

Preferably, the material loading bucket is available 2 parts are become to the fixed strip split, just the filter screen with the material loading bucket is constituteed and is dismantled mounting structure, and material loading bucket front side surface is provided with the observation window who conveniently observes gluey volume and state.

Compared with the prior art, the invention has the beneficial effects that: this can evenly go out to glue and carry out soft packet of lithium cell side molding equipment that clears up to the surplus glue, adopt neotype structural design, at inside puddler and the filter screen of increasing of device material loading bucket, prevent to block up out the inhomogeneous condition of gluing after long-time using, and set up the slope baffle in the operation panel inboard, can utilize the scraper of its front end installation to scrape the surplus glue when the bed die process, can change into traditional rubberizing strip mode and seal the glue when facing regular shape electricity core simultaneously, improve work efficiency and save material.

1. Square mounting panel, the returning face plate, cooperation between tilting mechanism and the rubberizing mechanism is used, add man-hour to regular shape electricity core, can change the bar mounting panel into square mounting panel and use, the rubberizing mechanism who utilizes the top adsorbs the sticky tape, later drive the returning face plate through tilting mechanism and rotate, utilize electric putter to paste the sticky tape in the side of electricity core, accomplish sticky tape banding operation, thereby realize switching at will between glue banding and sticky tape banding, can adapt to the processing of different shapes electricity core.

2. The cooperation between slope baffle, pinch roller and the extrusion spring is used, and when utilizing the sticky tape banding, after electric core moved the slope baffle position, make under the effect of extrusion spring and produce the extrusion force between pinch roller and the banding sticky tape, it is inseparabler to laminate the banding sticky tape to when the glue banding, can change the pinch roller into the scraper, when the bed die passes through, utilize the surplus glue that the scraper will overflow to scrape down, guarantee the quality of banding.

Drawings

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

FIG. 2 is a schematic top view of the square mounting plate of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic side view of the adhesive applying mechanism of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of the structure at A in FIG. 1 according to the present invention;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged view of the structure at B in FIG. 1 according to the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic top view of the charging bucket of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic side view of the upper bucket of the present invention;

fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a front section of the charging bucket of the present invention.

In the figure: 1. an operation table; 101. a fixing strip; 102. an observation window; 2. a conveyor belt; 3. a curing box; 4. a square mounting plate; 5. a turnover plate; 6. a turnover mechanism; 7. a gluing mechanism; 8. a discharge roller; 9. sealing the edge with an adhesive tape; 10. a strip-shaped mounting plate; 11. feeding the material tank; 12. an upper die; 13. a lower die; 14. a horizontal baffle; 15. a return spring; 16. an electric push rod; 17. a connecting pipe; 18. an adsorption hole; 19. a clamping device; 20. a linear slider; 21. a transmission screw rod; 22. a cutting knife; 23. an inclined baffle plate; 24. pressing the roller; 25. a compression spring; 26. a stirring rod; 27. and (4) a filter screen.

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. 1-8, the present invention provides a technical solution: the utility model provides a can evenly go out to glue and carry out soft packet of lithium cell side molding equipment who clears up to surplus glue, includes:

the operating platform 1 is horizontally placed on the ground of a processing workshop, and the left end and the right end of the operating platform 1 are respectively butted with the upper processing mechanism and the lower processing mechanism;

the conveying belt 2 is rotatably arranged in the middle of the upper surface of the operating platform 1, and a gap is formed between the side surface of the conveying belt 2 and the operating platform 1;

the curing box 3 is fixedly arranged at the left side position of the upper surface of the operating platform 1, and an ultraviolet lamp capable of accelerating the curing of the glue is arranged in the curing box 3;

the square mounting plate 4 is fixedly arranged in the middle position above the operating platform 1 by using screws, and the square mounting plate 4 is provided with a rubberizing mechanism 7 capable of automatically rubberizing the tape;

the turnover plate 5 is arranged on the inner side of the rubberizing mechanism 7, and an electric push rod 16 capable of pushing the rubberizing mechanism 7 to move back and forth is arranged on the side surface of the turnover plate 5;

the turnover mechanisms 6 are arranged on the left side and the right side of the turnover plate 5, and the turnover mechanisms 6 are arranged with the turnover plate 5 in a bearing way;

the discharging roller 8 is rotatably arranged on the upper surface of the square mounting plate 4, and an edge sealing adhesive tape 9 for performing edge sealing operation on the lithium battery cell is wound on the outer side of the discharging roller 8;

the strip-shaped mounting plate 10 can be fixedly mounted in the middle of the upper surface of the operating platform 1 by replacing the square mounting plate 4 through screws;

The feeding tank 11 is fixedly arranged above the strip-shaped mounting plate 10, and a stirring rod 26 capable of preventing glue raw materials from being blocked is rotatably arranged in the feeding tank 11;

the upper die 12 is fixedly arranged at the discharging position at the bottom end of the upper charging bucket 11, and the upper die 12 can realize lifting operation;

the lower die 13 is placed on the upper surface of the conveyer belt 2, and grooves for injecting glue are formed in the inner edge positions of the upper die 12 and the lower die 13;

the horizontal baffle 14 is symmetrically and movably arranged above the operating platform 1, and the horizontal baffle 14 is used for arranging and limiting the lithium battery cores needing to be sealed.

The horizontal baffle 14 and the operation table 1 form an elastic structure through a return spring 15 arranged at the rear, the rear side surface of the horizontal baffle 14 is of an inclined structure, the rubberizing mechanism 7 and the turnover plate 5 form a telescopic structure through an electric push rod 16, the turnover plate 5 and the square mounting plate 4 form a rotary structure through a turnover mechanism 6, the outer side surface of the rubberizing mechanism 7 is provided with an adsorption hole 18 capable of adsorbing the edge sealing adhesive tape 9, the adsorption hole 18 and a connecting pipe 17 form a through structure, the connecting pipe 17 is connected with an external air pump, the top end of the edge sealing adhesive tape 9 is provided with a clamping device 19 capable of clamping the edge sealing adhesive tape, the rear end of the clamping device 19 is fixedly provided with a linear slider 20, the linear slider 20 and the square mounting plate 4 form a sliding structure through a transmission screw rod 21, a cutting knife 22 capable of cutting the edge sealing adhesive tape 9 is arranged at a corresponding position at the rear end, the inner side of the left end of the operation table 1 is rotatably provided with an inclined baffle 23, and a pressing roller 24 is rotatably mounted at the top end of the inclined baffle plate 23.

When the edge sealing treatment is carried out on a soft package battery cell with regular shapes such as square and rectangle, firstly, the strip-shaped mounting plate 10 and the charging bucket 11 above the strip-shaped mounting plate are taken down, then the square mounting plate 4 is replaced, the battery cell needing edge sealing is placed on the upper surface of the conveyer belt 2 from the rear side of the operating platform 1 after the replacement is finished, when the battery cell passes through the position of the horizontal baffle plate 14, the horizontal baffle plate 14 pushes the battery cell to the middle position of the conveyer belt 2 under the action of the reset spring 15, the subsequent operation is convenient, in the process that the battery cell is transmitted by the conveyer belt 2, the front end of the edge sealing adhesive tape 9 is clamped by the clamping device 19, meanwhile, the transmission screw rod 21 rotates to enable the linear slide block 20 to drive the clamping device 19 to move towards the left side, the edge sealing adhesive tape 9 is pulled out from the discharging roller 8, after the length is proper, the cutting knife 22 works to cut the edge sealing adhesive tape 9, at the moment, the air pumps connected with the outer sides of the left and right sides and left side of the adhesive sticking mechanism 7 and right side of the connecting pipe 17 suck the interior of the air pumps into vacuum, thereby utilize the absorption hole 18 that its surface was seted up to adsorb the good banding sticky tape 9 of cutting, later make the returning face plate 5 drive rubberizing mechanism 7 rotate 180 under tilting mechanism 6's effect, after electric core reachs, electric putter 16 with its promote the position with electric core contact, thereby accomplish the laminating of banding sticky tape 9, later conveyer belt 2 continues to drive electric core and moves to the left side, when reacing inclined baffle 23 position, utilize the extrusion between pinch roller 24 and the banding sticky tape 9 under extrusion spring 25's effect, make the banding sticky tape 9 laminating inseparabler.

The pressing roller 24 can be dismantled and be changed into the scraper that can scrape off glue, and the inclined baffle 23 passes through extrusion spring 25 and constitutes elastic construction with operation panel 1, and puddler 26 evenly is provided with the multilayer in material loading bucket 11 is inside, and material loading bucket 11 internally mounted has can carry out filterable filter screen 27 to impurity in the glue raw materials, and material loading bucket 11 is usable the fixed strip 101 split becomes 2 parts, and filter screen 27 constitutes with material loading bucket 11 and dismantles mounting structure to material loading bucket 11 front side surface is provided with the observation window 102 of conveniently observing gluey volume and state.

When edge sealing treatment is carried out on an irregular-shaped battery cell, an upper die 12 and a lower die 13 which are suitable are selected according to the specific shape of the battery cell for use, the battery cell is placed in the lower die 13 at first and then placed on a conveyor belt 2 for conveying, after the lower die 13 reaches a position corresponding to the upper die 12, the conveyor belt 2 stops rotating, at the moment, the upper die 12 moves downwards to form a matched die with the lower die 13, glue in an upper charging tank 11 enters the die and is wrapped on the side edge of the battery cell under the drainage action of an internal groove, a stirring rod 26 in the upper charging tank 11 rotates differently when the upper charging tank 11 works to prevent the glue from being solidified, impurities in the glue are filtered under the action of a filter screen 27 before blanking, the phenomenon that the glue is not uniformly discharged due to blockage of a discharge port is prevented, after glue injection is finished, the conveyor belt 2 continues rotating, and the lower die 13 is conveyed to the position of an inclined baffle 23 (at the moment, a pressing roller 24 at the top end of the inclined baffle 23 is replaced And a scraper) for scraping off the residual glue overflowing from the lower die 13 by using the scraper on the inclined baffle 23, and finally curing the glue by using an inner ultraviolet lamp when passing through the curing box 3 to finish the edge sealing operation.

The working principle is as follows: when the device is used, according to the structure shown in the figures 1-8, when glue is used for sealing edges, the situation that glue is not uniformly discharged due to blockage is prevented by the aid of the stirring rod 26 and the filter screen 27 inside the feeding tank 11, the residual glue overflowing from the lower die 13 can be scraped by the aid of the scraper installed on the inclined baffle 23, the quality of the glue sealing edges is guaranteed, when the cells in regular shapes are sealed, the glue sealing edges are replaced by the traditional adhesive tape sealing edges, time and materials are saved more, and the working principle of the soft package lithium cell side edge sealing device capable of uniformly discharging glue and cleaning the residual glue is achieved.

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.