Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65G—TRANSPORT OR STORAGE DEVICES, e.g. CONVEYORS FOR LOADING OR TIPPING, SHOP CONVEYOR SYSTEMS OR PNEUMATIC TUBE CONVEYORS
  • B65G15/00—Conveyors having endless load-conveying surfaces, i.e. belts and like continuous members, to which tractive effort is transmitted by means other than endless driving elements of similar configuration
  • B65G15/30—Belts or like endless load-carriers
  • B65G15/32—Belts or like endless load-carriers made of rubber or plastics
  • B65G15/42—Belts or like endless load-carriers made of rubber or plastics having ribs, ridges, or other surface projections
  • B65G15/44—Belts or like endless load-carriers made of rubber or plastics having ribs, ridges, or other surface projections for impelling the loads
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65G—TRANSPORT OR STORAGE DEVICES, e.g. CONVEYORS FOR LOADING OR TIPPING, SHOP CONVEYOR SYSTEMS OR PNEUMATIC TUBE CONVEYORS
  • B65G2201/00—Indexing codes relating to handling devices, e.g. conveyors, characterised by the type of product or load being conveyed or handled
  • B65G2201/02—Articles

Definitions

• the present invention relates to conveyor belts and conveyors.
• a conveyor will usually comprise an endless belt having a conveyor surface, the belt passing around guide rollers at both ends of its path.
• a tension roller is often provided on the return length of the conveyor path to maintain tension in the belt. The tension roller bears on the conveyor surface side of the belt.
• a conveyor belt comprising a conveyor side, a reverse side opposite to the conveyor side and at least one generally transverse opening in the belt; and a support member separate from the belt, at least part of which support member projects through the opening to provide a flight extending from the plane of the belt on the conveyor side and means cooperating between the support member and the opening to allow the support member to be moved to lie substantially parallel to and against the conveyor side of the belt whereby the support member can pass a tension roller engaging the conveyor side of the belt.
• Such an arrangement has the advantages that it reguires a minimum of modifications to the belt, there is less flexing of the belt material substantially reducing fatigue and, if the support member becomes worn or if particular shapes are required, the support member can be replaced very easily.
• the support member is generally L-shaped in cross-section, comprising a body and a foot attached to the body, the foot being generally perpendicular to the body whereby, in use, the body extends generally perpendicular to the conveyor side of the belt, the foot extends generally parallel to the reverse side and when the body lies generally parallel to the conveyor side, the foot extends generally perpendicular to the reverse side.
• This construction provides a simple and effective means for reversing the position of the support member to enable it to pass the tension roller and to relocate the flight on the belt as the foot engages a guide roller at one end of the belt' s path before returning to the conveying portion of its path.
• the belt and support member have been found to provide the correct degree of resistance to articles placed on the belt on the conveyor side while being moved by the tension roller with minimal difficulty if the means cooperating between the support member and the belt include slots each extending from either end of the stop at the juncture of the body and the foot.
• the opening comprises circular holes through the belt at either end of a slit and the slots in the support member terminate in generally circular holes the centres of which are spaced apart by the distance between the centres of the holes at either end of the slit. The holes through the belt help to prevent tears.
• the support member is positioned in the opening such that the foot trails the body as the conveyor belt moves.
• the support member may comprise a body and foot of equal length with each of the body and foot comprising a generally rectangular plate.
• the support member may include two feet depending from the body such that the belt includes two aligned openings through which the feet project. In this way an elongate flight can be produced without requiring such a long slit to be cut into the belt. In some cases this is necessary to maintain the strength of the belt.
• the support member may have cut away edges in order to prevent the support member catching on parts of the conveyor belt.
• the support member may be of any material of sufficient strength and resilience.
• the support member is a polyurethane but it may include a polyester liner to reduce friction.
• a conveyor comprising a conveyor belt according to the preceding paragraphs.
• a support member adapted for use as a flight with a conveyor or conveyor belt according to the preceding paragraphs. The invention is particularly advantageous when used for inclined conveyors.
• Figure 1 is a schematic side elevational view of a conveyor in accordance with the present invention
• Figure 2 is a schematic enlarged plan view of part of a conveyor belt for use with the present invention
• Figure 3 is a schematic enlarged perspective view of a first support member for use with the present invention
• Figure 4 is a schematic enlarged side elevational view of the present invention showing the support member in its conveying and "rest" positions.
• Figure 5 is a schematic enlarged perspective view of a second support member for use with the present invention.
• a conveyor belt 2 comprising a conveyor side 6, a reverse side 8 opposite to the conveyor side 6 and at least one generally tranverse opening 10 in the belt 2; and a support member 12 separate from the belt 2, at least part of which support member 12 projects through the opening 10 to provide a flight 14 extending from the plane of the belt 2 on the conveyor side 6 and means cooperating between the support member 12 and the opening 10 to allow the support member 12 to be moved to lie substantially parallel to and against the conveyor side 6 of the belt 2 so that it can pass a tension roller 20 engaging the conveyor side 6 of the belt 2.
• a conveyor 4 carrying the belt 2 is shown inclined at an angle of about 40 degrees to the horizontal.
• the conveyor 4 has guide rollers 22, 24 at either end of the path of the belt 2, either one or both of which guide rollers 22, 24 can be driven by known means.
• the length of the belt 2 between the guide rollers 22, 24 on the side opposite the tension roller 20 comprises a conveyor portion 16.
• the guide rollers 22, 24 engage the reverse side 8 of the belt 2, while the tension roller 20 engages the conveyor side 6 of the belt 2, the belt 2 is driven in the direction indicated by arrow F.
• the belt 2 is formed from a polyurethane material having elastic resilience, or from other such materials well known to those skilled in the art.
• the belt 2 is 2 millimetres thick.
• the opening 10 is shown in more detail in Figure 2 and comprises an elongate slit 26 terminating, at either end, in holes 28, 30.
• the opening 10 is cut or formed in the belt 2 to be of minimal width. However, the width of opening 10 may be adjusted to improve the performance of the support member 12.
• the holes 28, 30 are cut, drilled or otherwise formed in the belt 2 to have a diameter to suit the thickness of the belt 2. The distance A between the centres of the holes 28, 30 is dependent on the width of the belt 2; in this case it is 100 millimetres.
• Figure 3 shows the support member 12 in more detail.
• the support member 12 is produced by injection moulding, extrusion and/or high frequency welding from a plastics material such as polyurethane.
• the support member 12 comprises a body portion 32 and a foot 34 extending generally perpendicular from the body 32 to form a substantially L-shaped elongate member.
• the height B of the body 32 in this embodiment is 50 millimetres. The height B is chosen so that it is sufficient to convey articles 44 up the incline of the conveyor 4 while being short enough relative to the tension roller 20 to be rotated into its non-conveying "rest" position as described below. Generally, the height B of the body portion 32 should be no more than the radius of the tension roller 20. However, larger body portions 32 have been found to work.
• the length C of the foot 34 in this embodiment is 25 millimetres.
• the length C is chosen to keep material and manufacturing costs to a minimum.
• the length C of foot 34 must be sufficient to hold the support member 12 in position when it is inserted in the opening 10 (as described below) and to allow the guide roller 22 to rotate the body into its conveying position (as described below).
• the maximum length C of the foot 34 should be the radius of the guide roller 22. Larger feet 34 can work.
• slot 36 extends from one end of the support member 14 part of the distance towards the centre of the support member 14 and terminates in the hole 40.
• the slot width D in this embodiment is 2 millimetres and is chosen to be equal to the thickness of the belt 2.
• the hole 40 has a diameter of 3 millimetres (chosen to be 1 millimetre greater than the width of the slot 36) which is equal to the radius of the holes 28, 30 in the belt 2.
• the slot 36 and hole 40 are formed eg as part of an injection moulding, or in post production from an extrusion at 45 degrees to the planes of the body 32 and foot 34, ie the slot 36 and hole 40 are symmetrical about the juncture of the body 32 and foot 34.
• the holes 40, 42 are spaced apart by a distance E which, in this embodiment, is 100 millimetres, ie the same as the spacing A between the holes 28, 30 in the belt 2.
• the support member 12 is forced through the opening 10, relying on the elasticity of the material of the belt 2, until the belt 2 springs back into the slots 36, 38 thereby holding the support member 12 in position.
• Either the body 32 can be forced through from the reverse side 8 or the foot 34 can be forced through from the conveyor side 6.
• the holes 28, 30 and the belt 2 and holes 40, 42 in the support member 12 overlap.
• the axes of the holes 28 and 42 intersect as do the axes of the holes 30 and 40.
• the holes 28 and 42 should overlap as should the holes 30 and 40.
• the distance A between the holes 28 and 30 (which is the same as the distance E between the holes 40, 42) needs to be large enough to permit the support member 12 to be inserted in the openin.g 10 without stretching the belt 2 beyond its elastic limit. If necessary, the foot 34 can be narrower than the body 32 to aid in this insertion into the opening 10.
• the support members on the conveyor portion 16 of the belt 2 have the bodies 32 of each of the support members 32 upstanding from the belt 2 so that the support members 12 form flights 14 generally perpendicular to the plane of the conveyor portion 16 of the belt 2. In this position, the flights 14 can be used to prevent articles 44 such as parcels, food products etc, from slipping down the belt and drive them in the direction indicated by arrow F.
• the feet 34 of each of the support members 12 can be seen on the reverse side 10 of the conveyor belt 2 lying generally parallel to and against the belt 2.
• the support members 12 continue in their path around guide roller 24.
• the support members 12 do not interfere with the operation of guide roller 24 as they pass around it because the feet 34 of the support members 12 which project on the reverse side 8 of the belt 2, and hence engage guide roller 24, are lying generally parallel to and against the surface of reverse side 8.
• the additional thickness of the feet 34 can be taken up by the resilience and elasticity of the belt 2.
• the support members 12 then continue towards the tension roller 20. As referred to above, if the support members 12 were to remain in the position they adopt along the conveyor portion 16 of the belt 2 as they pass the tension roller 20, damage and/or wear would occur between the tension roller 20 and the support members 12.
• the support member 12 is rotated from its conveying position to its "rest" position (as shown in ghost-lines in Figure 5).
• the tension roller 20 rotates the support member 12 whereas the articles 44 do not because: (1) the tension roller is fixed in place and hence provides a greater resistance to the support members 12; and (2) the tension roller 20 engages the top of the body 32 causing a larger turning force than that caused by the articles 44 which, typically, engage the body 32 nearer its juncture with the foot 34.
• the support member 12 is rotated to its "rest” position, in which the body 32 lies generally parallel to and against the conveyor side 6 of the belt 2, by the tension roller 20 allowing it to safely pass the tension roller 20 in the same way as foot 34 passed the guide roller 24.
• the foot 34 is upstanding from the reverse side 8 of the belt 2, ie the reverse of the conveying position of the support member 12.
• the support members 12 next engage the other guide roller 22 which performs the opposite operation to tension roller 20 and rotates the support members 12, referring to Figure 1 in a clockwise direction, to return the support members 12 to their conveying position.
• This operation is substantially the same as that described above in relation to tension roller 20, it will not be repeated here.
• FIG. 5 shows a second example of a support member for use with a conveyor belt.
• the support members 44 is produced from a sheet of polyurethane material having elastic resilience lined with a polyester liner to cut down friction. A shape is cut from the sheet of material and the feet are then heat formed to the perpendicular as shown in Figure 5.
• the support member 44 comprises a body portion 46 and two feet 48, 50 both extending generally perpendicularly from the body 46 to form a substantially L-shaped elongate member.
• the length F of the body is 30cm.
• the feet 48, 50 are of unequal length with the foot 48 being attached to the body 46 along G which is equal to 4.7cm.
• the longer foot 50 is connected to body 46 by distance H equal to 9.6cm.
• two slots of length 4.7cm and 9.6cm are cut into the belt which are colinear. This allows for a long body to be used to provide an elongate flight but without requiring an extremely long opening to be cut.
• the foot was a one piece foot the length of the opening required would be equal to length I which is 24.5cm which would considerably weaken any conveyer belt into which it was placed.
• the different lengths of the feet 48, 50 are chosen dependent upon other parts of the apparatus into which the conveyor is to be installed.
• the height J of the body is equal to 5.1cm with the beam being 2.2cm.
• the body 46 is not rectangular, it has curved edges to ensure that these do not catch upon parts of the apparatus in connection with which the conveyor is to be used.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Structure Of Belt Conveyors (AREA)
• Belt Conveyors (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Publications (1)

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ID=10727183

Family Applications (1)

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Family Cites Families (2)

• 1992
  • 1992-12-24 GB GB929226912A patent/GB9226912D0/en active Pending
• 1993
  • 1993-11-22 CA CA 2152613 patent/CA2152613A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 1993-11-22 AU AU55682/94A patent/AU5568294A/en not_active Abandoned
  • 1993-11-22 WO PCT/GB1993/002399 patent/WO1994014687A1/en not_active Ceased
  • 1993-11-22 EP EP94900909A patent/EP0675844A1/de not_active Ceased

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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