US2971233A

US2971233A - Clamp

Info

Publication number: US2971233A
Application number: US797383A
Authority: US
Inventors: Presti Roy F Lo; Vernon Arlan
Original assignee: Goodman Manufacturing Co LP
Current assignee: Goodman Manufacturing Co LP
Priority date: 1959-03-05
Filing date: 1959-03-05
Publication date: 1961-02-14
Anticipated expiration: 1978-02-14
Also published as: GB943259A

Description

Feb. 14, 1961 R. F. LO PRESTI EIAL 2,971,233

CLAMP Filed March 5, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTORS Roy F LoPresfi Arlan Vernon Feb. 14, 1961 R. F. LO PRESTI ETAL 71,233

CLAMP Filed March 5, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORS Roy E LoPresfi Arlan Vernon ATTORNEY United States Patent-O CLAMP Roy F. Lo Presti, Chicago, 111., and Arlan Vernon, Big Stone Gap, Va., assignors to Goodman Manufacturing Company, Chicago, 111., a corporation of Illinois Filed Mar. 5, 1959, Ser. No. 797,383

3 Claims. (Cl. 24-125) This invention relates to an improved clamping device for suspending an elongated conveyor component between designated locations on a pair of laterally spaced flexible strands of a flexible sidefrarne conveyor so that the conveyor component will be retained secured to the strands at the designated locations during movement of the strands.

Certain definite and desired advantages are acquired by the type of connecting link that is described, disclosed and claimed in the copending application of Roy F. Lo Presti and John R. Madeira, filed March 13, 1958, S.N. 721,236 (now abandoned). These certain advantages are that the force which is created by an impaling means to impale a strand between an abutment means and the impaling means acts substantially along the diameter of the strand; one link will effectively connect a conveyor component to several different sizes of strand; the link is provided with an open portion through which the strand is passed to position the link on the strand without having to thread the strand through the link; the link is further provided with a closed portion which converges with the path of movement of the impaling means so that the strand will be urged along the closed portion of the link and properly positioned against the abutment means thereof; and that even when the impaling means is accidently loosened, the link will maintain the conveyor component at the desired location since the pointed end of the impaling means is imbedded or immeshed within the strand. However, under certain circumstances such as repair, replacement, relocation, etc., it is undesirable for the impaling means to become imbedded or immeshed within the strands since it is necessary to substantially completely withdraw the impaling means from the link in order to remove the conveyor component from the strand.

It is the principal object of this invention to provide a clamping device having the desired advantages, as set forth above, and which, in addition to these advantages, does not require that the impaling means be substantially fully withdrawn from the link when it is desired to replace, relocate, repair etc., the conveyor component or the connecting device.

In order to obtain this additional advantage without sacrificing the other desired advantages, stated above, the improved clamping device of this invention includes a bracket that is carried by the impaling means for movement along the path of movement of the impalingmeans with the bracket being provided with an abutment means that is aligned with the abutment means of the link for impaling the strand therebetween. The bracket is positioned so that the bracket closes the open portion of the link; when the bracket is urged toward the abutment means of the linkand includesmeans for positioning the bracket on movement from the abutment means of the linkso that the open portion is substantially unobstructed.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a connecting device, of the type described, which is economical to manufacture, durable in use and easily operated.

Other objects and important features of this invention will be apparent from a study of the specification following taken with the drawing, which together describe, disclose and illustrate a preferred embodiment of the invention and what is now considered to be the best mode of practicing the principles thereof. Other embodiments may be suggested to those having the benefit of the teachings herein, and such other embodments are intended to be reserved especially as they fall within the scope and spirit of the subjoined claims.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a flexible sideframe convey-or having certain of the conveyor components connected to the flexible strand sideframes by a clamping device having the improvements of the present invention embodied therein;

Figure 2 is an enlarged plan view taken along the line 2-2 of Fig. 1 looking in the direction of the arrows and illustrating, in detail, the improved clamping device of this invention;

Figure 3 is an enlarged side elevational view taken along the line 3-3 of Fig. 1 looking in the direction of the arrows and illustrating, in detail, the improved clamping device of this invention;

Figure 4 is an enlarged longitudinal sectional view taken along the line 4-4 of Fig. 2 looking in the direction of the arrows;

Figure 5 is a partial sectional view of Fig. 4 illustrating one of the advantages of the improved clamping device of this invention;

Figure 6 is a partial sectional view, similar to Fig. 5, illustrating another advantage of this invention; and

Figure 7 is an enlarged longitudinal sectional view, similar to Fig. 4, illustrating an additional advantage of this invention.

Attention is now directed to the drawing wherein there is illustrated a flexible side-frame conveyor ltl having a pair of generally horizontally disposed, laterally spaced, substantially parallel, elongated strands 12-12 which are trained and supported along a given course by support standards 14. Suspended between desired loca tions on the strands 12-12 are a plurality of certain elongated conveyor components, such as spreaders 16 and idler assemblies 18 which are secured to the desired locations on the respective strands 12-12 by a clamping device 20, to be described and disclosed in more detail hereinafter, which is carried by each end portion of the certain conveyor components. As illustrated in Fig. l, a conveying reach 22 of a moving belt conveyor is supported by the idler assemblies 18 and return idler assemblies 24 are provided for supporting a return reach 26 of the belt conveyor.

The forms of the spreaders 16 and idler assemblies 18, as illustrated, are each one of many forms which these components may take in use in the flexible sidetrame conveyor 10 and it is to be understood that the clamping device 20 may be applied as well to other forms and kinds of conveyor components, not illustrated.

The improved clamping device 20 may be connected by suitable means 28 to each end portion of the selected conveyor component and for the sake of brevity only one of the clamping devices 20 will be described and it is to be noted that each of the clamping devices 20 comprises an elongated substantially C-shaped clamping member 30 having a back 32, upper lip 34 and a lower lip 36. The

lips

34 and 36 provide a channel for the reception of a cable strand 12. A connecting link or tail 40 for connecting the clamp ing device 20 to the means 28 extends from a partially elongated slotted portion 32 of the back 32 of the clamping member 30 in a direction that is generally opposed to the direction in which the lips 34-36 extend.

It is to be noted, as illustrated in Figs. 4 and 7, that the clamping device 20 is so positioned and disposed on the, strand 12'that the tail 40 extends generally laterally inwardly and downwardly relative to the course along which the conveyor is trained so that the end portions of the conveyor component will be disposed below the eifective working height of the strands 1212.

The upper lip 34 defines a bight or channel 42, which, as illustrated, is in the form of a concave surface that engages the strand 12. The other lip 36 of the clamping member 30, is substantially flat and is provided with an internally threaded opening 44 that is disposed in alignment with the channel 42.

An elongated impaling means 46, in the form of an externally threaded bolt having one end portion 48 pointed and an eye 50 forming the other end portion, is threadably mounted within the opening 44 with the longitudinal axis XX of the impaling means 46 being in. alignment with the axis of the channel 42 with the impaling means being moveable in a direction toward and from the channel 42 with the path of such movement converging with the back 32 of the link 30 in the direction of the channel 42.

A clamping jaw 52 is carried by the impaling means 46 for movement therewith and it is to be noted that the clamping jaw 52 is separate from and independent of the clamping member 30. The clamping jaw 52 is substantially U-shaped and includes an intermediate portion '54 having a pair of leg portions 56-56 which extend therefrom in substantially normal relationship thereto toward the link 30. One of the leg portions 56, hereinafter called the lower leg portion, is substantially flat and is positioned outside of the clamping member 30 below the lower end portion thereof. The lower leg portion. ofthe clamping jaw 52 is provided with an elongated slot 58 that extends generally laterally relative to the strand 12 and which is disposed in alignment with the threaded opening 44 in the lower end portion of the clamping member 30 for a purpose to be disclosed hereinafter. It is to be noted that the impaling means 46 extends through the slot 58 and that the slot 58 is larger than the. impaling means 46 so that the clamping jaw 52 is substantially free of contact with this portion of the impaling means 46 and is free to move generally laterally relative to the conveyor course.

The other leg portion 56 of the clamping jaw 52 extends through the opening 38 defined by the

lips

34, 36 of the clamping member 30 and terminates in an abutment means 60, in the form of a concave surface as illustrated, that is opposed to the channel 42 defined by the upper endportion of the clamping member 30. An indentation 62 is provided on the upper leg portion of the clamping jaw 52 in alignment with the longitudinal axis XX of the impaling means 46 and the pointed end portion 48 of the impaling means 46 is received within the indentation 62 for urging the abutment means 60 of the clamping jaw 52 toward and from the abutment means 42 of the clamping member 30 to grip or clamp the strand 12 therebetween with the line of force created by the impaling means passing substantially through a diameter of the strand 12.

In order for the clamping device to be effective in making a clamping connection for the selected conveyor component to strands which differ or vary in cross-sectional size, note Fig. 6 wherein three diiferent sizes of strands are illustrated in dotted lines, the upper lip 34 of the clamping device is provided with an elongated recess or notch 64 that extends generally longitudinal relative to the strand 12 into which the upper leg portion of the clamping jaw 52 may move on clamping strands 12' which may be of small cross-sectional size. Also, it is to be noted that on clamping strands 12" of relatively large cross-sectional size that the upper leg portion of the clamping jaw 52 will not pass as far into the recess 64.

In operation, with the impaling means 46 retracted, as illustrated in Fig. 7, and the eye. 50 being disposed in a plane substantially common with the plane of the strand 12, the clamping jaw, 52 is positioned so that the opening 38 between the end portions 34 of the link 30 is substantially unobstructed and the strand 12.may be passed therethroughinto the confines of the clamping member 30.

As illustrated by the dotted lines of'Fig. 5 if the strand 12 is positioned along the back 32 of the clamping member 30 the upper leg portion of the clamping jaw 52 is also passed through the opening 38, the pointed end portion 48 or" the impaling means 46 is positioned within the indentation 62 and as the impaling means 46 is moved toward the channel 42 of the clamping member 30 the abutment means 60 of the clamping jaw 52 urges the strand 12 along the back 32 of the clamping member 30 until the strand 12 is properly positioned to be gripped between the channels 42 and 60. In the clamping position, as just described, it is to be noted that the intermediate portion 54 of the clamping jaw 52 eifectively closes the opening 38 between the

lips

34 and 36 of the clamping member 30.

Also, in the operative clamping position, Fig. 4, the impaling means 46 is disposed in a substantially vertical plane that is common to the strand 12 and, extends gener ally downwardly therefrom so that there is, in effect, no obstacle that projects laterally outwardly along the conveyor COUISC.

While the invention has been described in terms of embodiment which it has assumed in practice, the scope.

of the invention should not be deemed to be limitedby the precise embodiment herein illustrated, such other era; bodiments being intended to. be reserved especially as they; fall within the scope of the claims here appended.

We claim as our invention:

1. A cable clamping device, comprising an elongated away and extended rearwardly therefrom and, from the cable to form a connecting link, an intermediate portion. of the downturned upper lip being removed to form a notch, a clamping screw mounted in the lower lip, a substantially U-shaped cable clamping jaw having a pair of substantially parallel legs, and one of said legs having an elongated slot engaged over said screw and the other leg received in said notch to engage and clamp said cable in said channel, said elongated slot in said one leg per mitting tilting of the clamping member away from the notch to permit entry of a cable or the like into said channel.

2. A clamping device according to claim 1, including a depression in the inner face of said other leg of the, clamping jaw, said screw being pointed, and having the point thereof engageable in said depression.

3. The structure as defined in claim 1, wherein the other leg of the clamping jaw has an upwardly facing concavity adapted to engage and confine a cable in said channel.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 480,810 Downie Aug. 16, 1892 1,586,939 Bement June 1, 1926 FOREIGN PATENTS 512,968 Germany Nov. 20, 1930