US2621779A - Flat wire conveyer belt and cover plate therefor - Google Patents

Description

N. S. HARTER Dec. 16, 1952 FLAT WIRE CONVEYER BELT AND COVER PLATE THEREFOR Filed Nov. 2:15, 1949 \t. Ell! ililillli llcl Na H 5. #49759,

2' H11 [HM Patented Dec. 16,. 1952 FLAT WIRE CONVEYER BELT AND COVER PLATE THEREFOR Noah S. Harter, Waukegan, 111., assignor to United States Steel Company, a corporation of New Jersey Application November 23, 1949, Serial No. 129,121

2 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in flat wire conveyor belts and cover plates therefor.

An object of the invention is to provide flat wire conveyor belts that have cover plates of improved construction which simplifies their fabrication and installation.

A further object of the invention is to provide improved conveyor belt cover plates which have outwardly concave fingers adapted to engage the inner and under faces of pintle rods, whereby the plates can be assembled with the belt at the same time the pintle rods and links are assembled, or they can be sprung into or out of engagement after the belt otherwise is assembled completely.

In accomplishing these and other objects of the invention, I have provided improved details of structure, a preferred form of which is shown in the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure l is a fragmentary top plan View of a conveyor belt which is equipped with cover plates that embody features of the present invention;

Figure 2 is a fragmentary side elevational view of the belt;

Figure 3 is a vertical sectional view taken substantially on line III-III of Figure 1; and

Figure 4 is a perspective view of one of the cover plates apart from the belt.

Figures 1, 2 and 3 show a conveyor belt which comprises a large number of fiat wire links l and a corresponding number of pintle rods 12. The pintle rods hingedly join the links in the usual fashion, and the belt can be driven either from drums or pulleys or from sprockets, as known in the art.

For some applications these belts preferably are equipped with cover plates, one such application being belts which carry glassware through annealing lehrs. The cover plates prevent the relatively sharp edges of the links leaving indentations in the edges of glassware, which is soft at the annealing temperature. I am aware of previous cover plate constructions for belts of this type, but such previous cover plates have been attached to the pintle rods by means which encompass the outside and top of one or both rods. The belt illustrated has cover Plates l3 of sheet metal, such as steel. Each cover plate has a flat mid-section which overlies a link, and occupies substantially the space between two pintle rods with sufiicient clearance alongside the rods for the next link to pivot. For some applications, such as in glass lehrs, the plates preferably have perforations M.

In accordance with the present invention the fiat mid-section of each plate has fingers l5 which depend from its edges. The fingers on opposite edges are staggered, and the fingers are concave outwardly from the plate. As Figure 3 best shows, the fingers engage only inner and under faces of the pintle rods. The staggered relation of the fingers enables those on adjacent plates to intermesh.

These cover plates can be assembled with the belt in the usual way; that is, when the pintle rods are inserted through the links, they can also be inserted past the fingers on the cover plates. Since the fingers engage only the inner and under faces of the rods and do not encompass the rods, alternatively the plates can be installed or removed from the belt by springing the fingers inwardly after the belt otherwise is assembled completely. This latter method of installing the plates enables the plates to be installed on previously manufactured belts, and also facilitates replacing plates that become damaged.

Thus it is seen that the cover plates of the present invention have a positive engagement with the pintle rods along both edges, but the engagement is such that the plates readily can be sprung into or out of engagement with the rods. In addition the plates are of a simple construction that facilitates their fabrication over usual cover plates in which the fingers encompass one or both pintle rods.

While I have shown and described only a single embodiment of the invention, it is apparent that modifications may arise. Therefore, I do not wish to be limited to the disclosure set forth but only by the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a conveyor belt which includes fiat wire links and pintle rods hingedly joining said links, cover plates over said links comprising fiat midsections and fingers depending from the edges of said mid-sections, the fingers on opposite sides of the mid-sections being in staggered relation and being concave outwardly away from the mid-sections of the plates, said fingers engaging the inner and under faces of said pintle rods and the fingers along adjacent edges of the plates intermeshing.

2. In a conveyor belt which includes flat wire links and pintle rods hingedly joining said links, cover plates over said links comprising fiat midsections. each of which overlies a link and occupies substantially the space between two pintle rods with sufficient clearance alongside the rods for the next link to pivot, and fingers depending from the edges of said mid-sections, the 10 fingers on opposite sides of said mid-sections being in staggered relation and being concave outwardly, said fingers engaging the inner and under faces of said pintle rods and leaving the 4 outer and. upper faces free, and the fingers along adjacent edges of the plates intermeshing.

NOAH S. HARTER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,354,553 Harter Oct, 5, 1920 1,686,533 Ronning et a1. .Oct. 9, 1928 1,758,397 Harber May 13, 1930

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