Reducing the Pulling Force on Plastic Bag Rolls

Abstract

A bagging table rolling device is a tool that is mainly installed in supermarkets to supply plastic bags. One of the usability problems with this device is that the pulling force is large. In the case of a large new roll, the pulling force is 6.9 N, which means that the device cannot be operated comfortably. The force that a user can easily exert is about 3 N, but when the pulling force exceeds 5 N, the roll feels heavy. One effective measure for reducing the pulling force is to reduce the angle of the rail on which the center shaft of the plastic bag roll is installed. Usually, it is designed at 45°, but if the angle is reduced, both the frictional force and pulling force decrease. In this research, the theoretical equation for the pulling force was derived for changes in rail angle, and a comparison with the measured value was made. As a result, the theoretical and measured values showed good agreement, and the theoretical formula was shown to be useful in rolling device design.