Tutorial: How to create and animate a conveyor belt (in this case CREO 2.0)

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5 Dec, 2013 10:06 AM

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1. Step 1:

   1. Create a simple sketch of the outline of a conveyor belt, add a (thin) extrude to define the shape of the rubber band.
   

   

2. Step 2:

   2. Create a small rib with the same width of the conveyor extrude. Add two points on the bottom surface. These points will be used to connect the rib to the sketch of the conveyor belt.
   

   

3. Step 3:

   3. Create an assembly and place the conveyor belt. Mate the rib with 3 connection-sets:
   1. slot connection: connect the first point to the outline-sketch
   2. slot connection: connect the second point to the outline-sketch
   3. planar connection: connect the right-plane of the rib to the right-plane if the conveyor belt so that the center of the rib will always be parallel and coincident to the center of the conveyor belt.

   

4. Step 4:

   4. Repeat this a number of times. Later we will define the distances between ribs.
   

   

5. Step 5:

   5. Activate the Mechanism Application and right click on the slot-connections and edit the motion-axis positions.
   

   

6. Step 6:

   6. For each rib, we need to define one servo-motor. To create a servo-motor, right click on a slot-connection and add servo-motor. Use a constant velocity (e.g. 400 mm/ sec, when the total length of the belt is 4000 mm. In a run of 10 seconds, the rib will have made one round).
   

   

7. Step 7:

   7. Create a new part and design a roller that fits in the conveyor-belt. Assemble the roller at least twice like in the image above. Use pin-connection and add servo-motors to botch rollers in order to animate them later. Of course the rollers should have the same velocity as the belt. That means that the perimeter of the rollers should “stick” to the belt. In this case the perimeter of the roller is 140 mm, but the perimeter of the belt is 150 mm and the speed is 400 mm/sec.
   400 / (π x 150) = 0.85 rounds /sec = 306 deg/sec which is the velocity the rollers should have.

   

8. Step 8:

   8. Create a position analysis (no expensive MDO license needed) and make sure all motors are added. Set end-time on 10 seconds and increase frame rate for a smoother animation.
   

   

9. Step 9:

   9. Render the animation.