AU2010100805B9

AU2010100805B9 - A Wear Indicating Assembly

Info

Publication number: AU2010100805B9
Application number: AU2010100805A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Lawrence Harvey Robinson
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Tuffstuff International Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2010-02-16
Filing date: 2010-07-28
Publication date: 2015-05-07
Anticipated expiration: 2018-02-16
Also published as: AU2010100805B4; AU2010100805A4

Description

AUSTRALIA Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION Innovation Patent Invention Title: A Wear Indicating Assembly Applicant: Tuffstuff (Qld) Pty Ltd The invention is described in the following statement: 2 A Wear Indicating Assembly Field of the Invention. The present invention relates to conveyor belt assemblies, more particularly to cleaner blade assemblies and most particularly to a wear indicating 5 assembly to provide an indication of the state of wear of a cleaner blade. Background Art. Currently, in order to establish the degree to which cleaner blades used to clean a conveyor belt were worn, an operator has to either place themselves in a potentially dangerous position of opening a conveyor belt housing whilst the conveyor 10 is operating in order to perform a visual inspection of the blades, or they are required to stop the conveyor in order to inspect the blades. This causes a loss in output for the time that the conveyor was stopped. It would therefore be an advance in this field if a wear indicating assembly were provided which allowed safe and simple assessment of the wear 15 condition of cleaner blades without requiring the conveyor to be stopped. It will be clearly understood that, if a prior art publication is referred to herein, this reference does not constitute an admission that the publication forms part of the common general knowledge in the art in Australia or in any other country. Summary of the Invention. 20 The present invention is directed to a wear indicating assembly, which may at least partially overcome at least one of the abovementioned disadvantages or provide the consumer with a useful or commercial choice. With the foregoing in view, the present invention in one form, resides broadly in a wear indicating assembly for a conveyor belt cleaning blade, the assembly 25 associated with a cleaning blade tensioning assembly including a cleaning blade rail to which at least one cleaning blade is mounted and which biases the at least one cleaning blade against the conveyor belt, the wear indicating assembly including an indicator portion mounted relative to the cleaning blade rail using an at least partially annular collar for rotation with the cleaner blade rail such that as the at least one 30 cleaning blade is worn, the indicator portion rotates with the cleaning blade tensioning rail, the position of the indicator portion showing the degree of wear of the at least one cleaning blade. According to an alternative aspect, the present invention resides in a conveyor belt cleaning assembly with wear indicator, the conveyor belt cleaning 35 assembly including an elongate cleaning blade mounting assembly extending transversely across the conveyor belt, at least one cleaning blade mounted to the cleaning blade mounting assembly, a cleaning blade tensioning assembly to bias the at least one cleaning blade against the conveyor belt through biased rotation of the 3 cleaning blade mounting assembly, and an indicator portion mounted relative to the cleaning blade rail using an at least partially annular collar on an external portion of the conveyor belt cleaning assembly and for rotation with the cleaning blade mounting assembly such that as the at least one cleaning blade is worn, the indicator portion 5 rotates with the cleaning blade tensioning assembly, the position of the indicator portion showing the degree of wear of the at least one cleaning blade. The wear indicator assembly of the present invention can be used with a spring tensioned or an air tensioned blade tensioning assembly. Typically, a cleaning blade rail is provided extending transversely 10 across the conveyor belt and a plurality of individual cleaning blades are mounted to the cleaning blade rail. The cleaning blade rail is typically mounted through an opening in a mounting plate and the cleaning blade tensioning assembly is provided on an outer side of the mounting plate, on the opposite side to the cleaning blade rail. Normally, this results in the cleaning blade tensioning assembly being provided 15 outside the housing which covers the conveyor belt. The cleaning blade tensioning assembly is provided to bias the cleaning blades into the cleaning position such that as the cleaning blades wear, the tensioning assembly operates to maintain contact between the cleaning blades and the conveyor belt. 20 The indicator portion is normally mounted for rotation with, or as a result of the rotation of the cleaning blade rail under the biasing force of the cleaning blade tensioning assembly. Therefore, as the cleaning blades wear, the tensioning assembly rotates the cleaning blade rail such that the cleaning blades are maintained in the cleaning position relative to the conveyor belt. 25 The indicator portion preferably includes a means to mount the indicator portion relative to the cleaning blade rail. According to one particularly preferred embodiment, the mounting means is an annular mounting ring adapted to receive a portion of the cleaning blade rail or other portion in order to mount the indicator portion relative to the cleaning blade rail. 30 Preferably, the indicator portion is provided on an outermost part of the assembly, opposite the cleaning blade rail. Normally, the indicator portion is mounted outside the conveyor housing such that blade wear can be determined without opening the housing and/or stopping the conveyor. An arm member or similar extension from the preferred annular 35 mounting ring will preferably be provided in order to provide an indication of the wear of the cleaning blades. Typically, indicia will be provided on the assembly such that the arm member or extension moves relative to the indicia in order to indicate wear.

4 Typically, the indicia will include a scale or similar, preferably from "new" to "replace" or similar. A series of percentage indicium may be included in between the end of the scale in order to indicate the percentage of the cleaning blade remaining and/or used. 5 There will preferably be a further indicium provided beyond the "replace" indicium in order to indicate that they conveyor belt should be stopped and the cleaning blades replaced before further operation. This indicium will therefore be a "safety stop" or similar indicium. For an air tensioned cleaning blade assembly, the "new" indicium is 10 preferably at an upper portion of the scale with the "replace" indicium at a lower portion of the scale with the reverse direction being used for a spring tensioned cleaning blade assembly. This difference in the direction of the scale or indicating indicia is typically due to the different manners of operation of spring tensioned and air tensioned cleaning blade assemblies. 15 It is preferred that the indicator indicia are provided on attachable plate or similar which is attachable to the mounting plate or a portion of the conveyor housing. Alternatively, the indicator indicia may be provided integrally with the mounting plate or the conveyor housing. However provided, the indicator indicia will typically be fixed in position relative to the indicator portion so as not to give a false 20 indication. The wear indicating assembly will also preferably include an adjustable stop provided so as to prevent as the tensioning apparatus from rotating the cleaning blades beyond a particular set limit. The adjustable stop may be integrally formed with the remainder of the assembly in particular, the mounting plate, or may be formed 25 separately from an attached thereto. According to a particularly preferred form, the adjustable stop will be formed integrally with a removable or attachable indicator indicia plate. This will allow retrofitting of the wear indicating assembly with simultaneous retrofitting of the adjustable stop. The indicator portion will preferably be attached to the blade rail or 30 remainder of the assembly releasably. According to the preferred form of annular ring, at least one threaded fastener (set screw) is preferably provided extending through the mounting ring transversely. There is preferably an internally threaded opening is provided in the mounting ring to receive the set screw. According to this arrangement, tightening be set screw will draw the opposite side of the annular ring hard against the 35 end of the cleaning blade rail if a single set screw is provided, and if more than one set screw is used, the screws can be tightened against each other to provide a secure attachment.

5 However, in use, there will typically be little or no force applied to the indicator portion and therefore a single set screw will generally be sufficient to maintain the position of the indicator portion on or relative to the cleaning blade rail. Therefore, in use, as the tensioning assembly rotates the cleaning 5 blades to maintain their position relative to the conveyor belt, the co-located indicator portion is also rotated a relative degree and thus can be used to monitor the wear of the cleaning blades in a safe manner and without requiring the conveyor belt to be stopped. Rotation of the indicator portion may be directly or indirectly with the 10 cleaning blade tensioning assembly and/or the cleaning blade rail. Any of the features described herein can be combined in any combination with any one or more of the other features described herein within the scope of the invention. Brief Description of the Drawings. 15 Various embodiments of the invention will be described with reference to the following drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a view from the front of a wear indicating assembly according to a preferred embodiment used in conjunction with an air tensioned cleaning blade assembly. 20 Figure 2 is a view from the left side of the arrangement illustrated in Figure 1. Figure 3 is a view from the front of a wear indicating assembly according to a preferred embodiment used in conjunction with a spring tensioned cleaning blade assembly. 25 Figure 4 is a view from the left side of the arrangement illustrated in Figure 3. Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiment. According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a wear indicating assembly for a conveyor belt cleaning blade is provided. 30 The wear indicator assembly of the preferred embodiment can be used with an air tensioned cleaning blade tensioning assembly, as illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 or a spring tensioned cleaning blade tensioning assembly, as illustrated in Figures 3 and 4. A conventional conveyor belt cleaning assembly includes an elongate 35 cleaning blade mounting assembly extending transversely across the conveyor belt and a plurality of cleaning blades mounted to the cleaning blade mounting assembly. A 6 cleaning blade tensioning assembly is provided to bias the cleaning blades against the conveyor belt through biased rotation of the cleaning blade mounting assembly. As illustrated in Figures 1 and 2, all of the components of the tensioning assembly and the wear indicating assembly are mounted on an outer side of 5 a mounting bracket 2 which is normally attached to an outer side of a conveyor housing. The mounting bracket 2 is attached to the conveyor housing using a number of bolts 9 and Nyloc nuts 10 with washers 8 located between the mounting bracket 2 and the conveyor housing. As illustrated in Figures 1 and 2, these bolts and nuts also attach a mounting bracket I to the mounting bracket 2. 10 An air bag 4 is provided between an air bag operating arm 3 and mounting bracket 1 and is attached to the air bag operating arm 3 using a number of cap head screws 6. The air bag operating arm 3 is clamped to the end of a cleaning blade mounting assembly 30 using one or more set screws 5 and is maintained in position relative thereto by provision of a set screw 16 which extends partially into the 15 cleaning blade mounting assembly 30 to ensure coincidental rotation. A mounting bush 13 guides rotation of the cleaning blade mounting assembly 30 relative to the cleaning blade tensioning assembly. A set screw 5 is also used to attach the indicator arm 11 to the cleaning blade tensioning assembly 30. Maintenance of a positive or expansive pressure in the air bag 4 via an 20 air fitting 7, will bias the air bag operating arm 3 away from the mounting bracket 1 to maintain the cleaning blades on the cleaning blade mounting assembly 30 against the conveyor belt. The wear indicating assembly of the preferred embodiment used in association with an air tensioned cleaning blade tensioning assembly as illustrated in 25 Figures 1 and 2 includes an indicator arm 11 mounted for rotation with the cleaner blade mounting assembly 30 such that as the cleaning blade is worn, the indicator arm 11 rotates with the cleaning blade mounting assembly 30 under the bias of the air tensioning assembly and the position of the indicator arm shows the degree of wear of the cleaning blade relative to a scale 31. 30 The indicator arm 11 illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 includes an annular mounting ring to mount the indicator arm 11 relative to the cleaning blade mounting assembly 30 by receiving an end portion of the cleaning blade mounting assembly 30. The indicator arm illustrated is provided on an outermost part of the cleaning blade mounting assembly 30 outside the conveyor housing such that blade 35 wear can be determined without opening the housing and/or stopping the conveyor. An extension member extends from the annular mounting ring to moves relative to the scale 31 in order to indicate wear.

7 Typically, the scale includes markings from "new" to "replace" with a series of percentage indicium included in between the ends of the scale in order to indicate the percentage of the cleaning blade used. There is also a further indicium provided beyond the "replace" 5 indicium in order to indicate that they conveyor belt should be stopped and the cleaning blades replaced before further operation. This indicium will therefore be a "safety stop" or as illustrated. According to the embodiment illustrated in Figures 1 and 2, the scale 31 is provided on attachable plate or bracket 12 which is attachable to the mounting 10 plate 2. This, in combination with the indicator arm 11 allows simple retrofitting of the wear indicating assembly to existing cleaning blade assemblies. The attachable plate or bracket 12 also includes an adjustable stop 32 provided so as to prevent as the tensioning apparatus from rotating the cleaning blades beyond a particular set limit. The adjustable stop 32 is integrally formed with the 15 attachable plate or bracket 12. According to the particularly preferred form, the adjustable stop 32 includes a threaded set screw 15 mounted relative to an extension portion of the bracket 12 via a standard nut 14. This will allow retrofitting of the wear indicating assembly with simultaneous retrofitting of the adjustable stop. Rotation of the set screw 15 relative to the nut 14 changes the 20 separation distance between the end of the set screw 15 and the air bag operating arm 3. As the cleaning blades wear and the tensioning assembly biases the cleaning blades against the conveyor belt by expansion of the air bag 4 causing rotation of the bag operating arm 3, this causes the operating arm 3 to move towards the end of the set screw of the adjustable stop 32. Once the operating arm 3 abuts the end of the set 25 screw of the adjustable stop 32, further rotation of the cleaning blades is not possible. This will typically coincide with the indicator arm 11 pointing to the "safety stop" indicia on the scale 3 1. The use of a wear indicating assembly in relation to a spring tensioned cleaning blade tensioning assembly is illustrated in Figures 3 and 4. Again, all of the 30 components of the tensioning assembly and the wear indicating assembly are mounted on an outer side of a mounting bracket 2 which is normally attached to an outer side of a conveyor housing. The mounting bracket 2 is attached to the conveyor housing using a number of bolts 13 and Nyloc nuts 12 with washers 14 located between the mounting bracket 2 and the conveyor housing. As illustrated in Figures 3 and 4, these 35 bolts and nuts also attach adjusting rod arm 1 to the mounting bracket 2. The adjusting rod arm 1 is provided with a transversely extending rod 33 at an upper end thereof which engages with one end of a spring loaded adjusting 8 rod 5. The transversely extending rod 33 is received through an opening in the end of the adjusting rod 5 and a split pin 10 and flat washer 9 are used to secure the spring loaded adjusting rod 5 to the transversely extending rod 33. This arrangement also allows a pivotal movement of the components relative to each other. A grease nipple 5 16 is provided concentrically at the end of the adjusting rod 5. A spring operating arm 4 is attached to the adjusting rod 5 intermediate the ends. The spring operating arm 4 illustrated is attached to the adjusting rod 5 through the provision of a spring bush 6 and the spring operating arm 4 includes a straight portion on one side and an attachment that is secured to the straight portion 10 via attachment bolts 20 to define a U-shaped opening into which the adjusting rod 5 is received. A securing pin 34 extends through the adjusting rod 5 to assist with attachment. A spring 7 is then provided under compression between the spring bush 6 and a thread protector bush 19. The degree of compression on the spring can be 15 changed by provision of an externally threaded portion and one or more nuts 8. Normally a washer 9 is also used. The spring 7 biases the spring operating arm 4 away from the adjusting rod arm 1 to maintain the cleaning blades on the cleaning blade mounting assembly 30 against the conveyor belt. 20 The spring operating arm 4 is clamped to the end of a cleaning blade mounting assembly 30 using one or more set screws 11 and is maintained in position relative thereto by provision of a set screw 18 which extends partially into the cleaning blade mounting assembly 30 to ensure coincidental rotation. A mounting bush 17 guides rotation of the cleaning blade mounting assembly 30 relative to the 25 cleaning blade tensioning assembly. A set screw 11 is also used to attach the indicator arm 15 to the cleaning blade tensioning assembly 30. The wear indicating assembly of the preferred embodiment used in association with a spring tensioned cleaning blade tensioning assembly as illustrated in Figures 3 and 4 includes an indicator arm 15 mounted for rotation with the cleaner 30 blade mounting assembly 30 such that as the cleaning blade is worn, the indicator arm 15 rotates with the cleaning blade mounting assembly 30 under the bias of the spring tensioning assembly and the position of the indicator arm 15 shows the degree of wear of the cleaning blade relative to a scale 31. The indicator arm 15 illustrated in Figures 3 and 4 includes an annular 35 mounting ring to mount the indicator arm 15 relative to the cleaning blade mounting assembly 30 by receiving an end portion of the cleaning blade mounting assembly 30.

9 The indicator arm illustrated is provided on an outermost part of the cleaning blade mounting assembly 30 outside the conveyor housing such that blade wear can be determined without opening the housing and/or stopping the conveyor. An extension member extends from the annular mounting ring to 5 moves relative to the scale 31 in order to indicate wear. Typically, the scale includes markings from "new" to "replace" with a series of percentage indicium included in between the ends of the scale in order to indicate the percentage of the cleaning blade used. There is also a further indicium provided beyond the "replace" 10 indicium in order to indicate that they conveyor belt should be stopped and the cleaning blades replaced before further operation. This indicium will therefore be a "safety stop" or as illustrated. According to the embodiment illustrated in Figures 3 and 4, the scale 31 is provided on attachable plate or bracket 3 which is attachable to the mounting 15 plate 2. This, in combination with the indicator arm 15 allows simple retrofitting of the wear indicating assembly to existing cleaning blade assemblies. For an air tensioned cleaning blade assembly, the "new" indicium is preferably at an upper portion of the scale with the "replace" indicium at a lower portion of the scale with the reverse direction being used for a spring tensioned 20 cleaning blade assembly. This difference in the direction of the scale or indicating indicia is typically due to the different manners of operation of spring tensioned and air tensioned cleaning blade assemblies. In the present specification and claims (if any), the word "comprising" and its derivatives including "comprises" and "comprise" include each of the stated 25 integers but does not exclude the inclusion of one or more further integers. Reference throughout this specification to "one embodiment" or "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, the appearance of the phrases "in one embodiment" or "in an 30 embodiment" in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more combinations. In compliance with the statute, the invention has been described in language more or less specific to structural or methodical features. It is to be 35 understood that the invention is not limited to specific features shown or described since the means herein described comprises preferred forms of putting the invention into effect. The invention is, therefore, claimed in any of its forms or modifications 10 within the proper scope of the appended claims (if any) appropriately interpreted by those skilled in the art.

Claims

1. A wear indicating assembly for a conveyor belt cleaning blade, the assembly associated with a cleaning blade tensioning assembly including a cleaning blade rail to which at least one cleaning blade is mounted and which biases the 5 at least one cleaning blade against the conveyor belt, the wear indicating assembly including an indicator portion mounted relative to the cleaning blade rail using an at least partially annular collar for rotation with the cleaning blade rail such that as the at least one cleaning blade is worn, the indicator portion rotates with the cleaning blade rail, the position of the indicator portion 10 showing the degree of wear of the at least one cleaning blade.

2. A wear indicating assembly for a conveyor belt cleaning blade as claimed in claim I wherein indicia is provided on the assembly such that the indicator portion moves relative to the indicia in order to indicate wear.

3. A wear indicating assembly for a conveyor belt cleaning blade as claimed in 15 claim 2 wherein the indicia are provided on an attachable plate attached to cleaning blade tensioning assembly.

4. A wear indicating assembly for a conveyor belt cleaning blade as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2 including an adjustable stop provided so as to prevent as the cleaning blade tensioning apparatus from rotating the cleaning blades beyond a 20 particular set limit.

5. A conveyor belt cleaning assembly with wear indicator, the conveyor belt cleaning assembly including an elongate cleaning blade mounting assembly extending transversely across the conveyor belt, at least one cleaning blade mounted to the cleaning blade mounting assembly, a cleaning blade tensioning 25 assembly to bias the at least one cleaning blade against the conveyor belt through biased rotation of the cleaning blade mounting assembly, and an indicator portion mounted relative to the cleaning blade rail using an at least partially annular collar on an external portion of the conveyor belt cleaning assembly and for rotation with the cleaning blade mounting assembly such that 30 as the at least one cleaning blade is worn, the indicator portion rotates with the cleaning blade tensioning assembly, the position of the indicator portion showing the degree of wear of the at least one cleaning blade.