Method for producing a belt- or band-shaped component having an electronic device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11378158-B2
Application number	US-201916663407-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 25, 2019
Priority date	Oct 26, 2018
Publication date	Jul 5, 2022
Grant date	Jul 5, 2022

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for producing a belt- or band-shaped component made of elastomer material, which is driven to run around under tensile stress and which has an electronic circuit or electronic device installed in the component, the component having tension members or cords which are arranged in the longitudinal direction, wherein, during the fabrication and before the vulcanization of the component blank, planar intermediate plies or strips made of material which cannot be crosslinked by vulcanization are inserted into the blank structure in subregions of the blank, wherein, after the fabrication, the blank is completely vulcanized to form the component and, where appropriate, cut or trimmed, and wherein the intermediate plies or strips are then removed from the component through correspondingly incorporated or method-intrinsically formed openings, and an electronic circuit or electronic device is introduced into the thus resulting planar empty space or interspace in the component.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for producing a component made of an elastomer material and having tension members arranged in the longitudinal direction and the component being a belt, the method comprising:
inserting planar intermediate plies which cannot be crosslinked by vulcanization into a blank structure in subregions of a blank component;
vulcanizing the blank component to form a vulcanized component after inserting the planar intermediate plies;
removing the intermediate plies from the vulcanized component generating interspace in the vulcanized component; and
introducing one or more electronic devices into the interspace of the vulcanized component.

2. The method for producing a component as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising:
embedding at least one fabric ply in an outer surface of the blank component prior to vulcanizing the blank component;
arranging one or more planar intermediate plies adjacent the at least one fabric ply, wherein the one or more planar intermediate plies are comprised of a material which cannot be crosslinked by vulcanization;
forming openings in the outer surface and the at least one fabric plie; and
inserting the one or more planar intermediate plies or strips into the blank structure by way of the formed openings and using a carrier film.

3. The method of claim 2 , in which the intermediate plies are formed as strips made of polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon) or silicone paper.

4. The method as claimed of claim 1 , in which the electronic circuit or electronic device is arranged on an electronics carrier and is formed as a film circuit or as a printed circuit applied to film.

5. The method of claim 1 , in which the electronic circuit or electronic device is adhesively bonded, via a linear, patch-like or punctiform connection, in the planar empty space or interspace.

6. The method of claim 1 , in which the one or more electronic devices have a temperature sensor and the interspace is filled with an elastic heat-conducting paste after the introduction of the circuit.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the vulcanized component is a drive belt having a drive side, a rear side and lateral surfaces, wherein the fabrication occurs on a building drum and in the form of a cylindrical blank whose length corresponds to a multiple of the drive belt width, wherein, during the fabrication and before the vulcanization of the cylindrical blank, intermediate plies or strips which extend at least over partial lengths of the cylindrical blank and are made of material which cannot be crosslinked by vulcanization are inserted into the blank structure in subregions of the blank, wherein, after the fabrication, the blank is completely vulcanized and cut into individual drive belts, wherein the intermediate plies or strips are then removed from the separated drive belts, and the electronic device is introduced into the thus resulting planar empty space or interspace.

8. The method of claim 7 , in which the intermediate plies or strips are inserted into the cylindrical blank in such a way that, after the cutting or separation of the drive belts, they are accessible and removable on or from at least one lateral surface of the drive belt.

9. The method of claim 7 , in which, during the fabrication of the cylindrical blank, intermediate plies or strips which extend at least over parts of the length of the cylindrical blank and are made of material which cannot be crosslinked by vulcanization are inserted in certain portions into the blank structure in subregions of the blank in such a way that the ends of the strips project out of the fabricated blank through incisions incorporated into the outer fabric plies during the fabrication.

10. The method of claim 7 , in which, after introducing the electronic circuit or electronic device into the empty space or interspace, the accesses or openings to the empty space or interspace are closed again, preferably by melting on or melting in a thermoplastic compound.

11. The method of claim 10 for producing a drive belt provided with a plurality of fabric plies, in which the intermediate plies are inserted between two fabric plies, in which at least one of the fabric plies is designed to be extensible and is sewn in or welded in in strip form between the other fabric plies, and in which the fabric plies are welded or adhesively bonded to the edges of the drive belts.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising selecting one or more circuits, sensors, receivers and transmission devices as the electronic device based on customer information prior to inserting or introducing the electronic device into the interspace.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising filling remaining space of the interspace with a thermoplastic compound after introducing the electronic device to the interspace.

14. A method for producing a component made of an elastomer material, the method comprising:
inserting intermediate plies which cannot be crosslinked by vulcanization into a blank structure in subregions of a blank component, the intermediate plies comprise polytetrafluoroethylene;
vulcanizing the blank component to form a vulcanized component after inserting the planar intermediate plies;
removing the intermediate plies from the vulcanized component generating interspace in the vulcanized component; and
introducing one or more electronic devices into the interspace of the vulcanized component, the one or more electronic devices comprising a printed circuit applied to film.

15. The method of claim 14 , the intermediate plies are in form of patches and comprise a material not crosslinked by vulcanization.

16. The method of claim 14 , further comprising forming openings in the blank component prior to inserting the planar intermediate plies and melting a thermoplastic compound to close the openings after introducing the one or more electronic devices into the interspace.

17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising removing the intermediate plies from the component through the formed openings after vulcanizing the blank component.

18. The method of claim 14 , introducing the one or more electronic devices comprises forming a circuit having spatial extents that only partially fill the generated interspace to encapsulate the circuit and arrange the circuitry with respect to main loading directions to prevent compression and tensile loading on the circuitry.

19. The method of claim 18 , further comprising adhesively bonding the circuitry in the generated interspace.

20. The method of claim 14 , further comprising filling the interspace with heat conducting paste after inserting the one or more electronic devices, the one or more electronic devices comprise a temperature sensor.

21. The method of claim 14 , introducing the one or more electronic devices comprises introducing a receiver and a transmitter only signal connected to each other.

22. The method of claim 14 , specifying a plurality of measuring points after vulcanization and equipping the belt with electronics only where appropriate based on the specified measuring points.

Assignees

• Contitech Antriebssysteme Gmbh

Inventors

• Sattler Heiko
• Rosenbohm Svenja
• Mahnken Claus-Lueder
• Reck Siegfried
• Rosen Simon

Classifications

• F16G5/08

  with textile reinforcement · CPC title

• B29D29/08 Primary

  Toothed driving belts · CPC title

• F16G5/166

  with non-metallic rings (F16G5/18 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B29D29/06

  Conveyor belts · CPC title

• F16G1/28

  with a contact surface of special shape, e.g. toothed · CPC title