Belt conveyor

Details Belt conveyor Belt conveyor

1999-03-24

2001-11-13

Ellis, Christopher P. (Department: 3651)

Conveyors: power-driven

With means to facilitate working, treating, or inspecting...

C198S415000, C198S416000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06315100

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is related to belt conveyors, particularly belt conveyors for conveyance of products being treated during the conveyance and having a tendency of sticking to the conveyor belt.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Removing unfrozen or completely frozen food products from the discharge end of a belt conveyor is generally quite easy. Unfrozen products have little adhesion to the belt and are easily removed by gravity or a tight fitting scraper. Fully frozen products often adhere to the belt, but are rigid and are easily removed by a rigid scraper.
There are times when it is desirable to remove products from the discharge end of a belt conveyor when they are only partially frozen. This may be done to stiffen a product prior to coating it with breading or to stiffen a product prior to placing it on a wire mesh spiral freezer belt while still being quite soft and even wet in places. The products will not generally fall off the belt due to gravity nor will scrapers work well. The normal situation with scrapers is that soft, wet portions of the product will get under the scraper and prevent the product from coming off or even drag the rest of the product under the scraper with it. This happens even with the so called “finger scraper” design.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a belt conveyor that facilitates removing of sticky products, especially food products, from a conveyor belt of the belt conveyor.
The present invention achieves this object in a belt conveyor comprising an endless conveyor belt and first and second rollers, the endless belt following a conveyance path from the first roller to the second roller and a return path from the second roller to the first roller. The belt conveyor further comprises a plurality of parallel lines extending over the conveyor belt along the whole conveyance path and then over and away from the second roller along a plane deviating from the plane of the conveyance path.
The lines may be stationary and the conveyor belt may have parallel longitudinal grooves for receiving the lines along the conveyance path.
In an alternative embodiment, the lines are endless and moveable in the same direction as the conveyor belt. In this alternative embodiment, the path of the lines is preferably separated from the lines in that a third roller is provided for separating the paths of the lines from the path of the conveyor belt after that both the conveyor belt and the lines have pasted over the second roller.
The conveyor belt can have parallel longitudinal grooves for receiving the lines along the conveyance path.
The belt conveyor may be driven by a drive system moving both the conveyor belt and the plurality of lines. The conveyor belt and the lines may be driven at substantially the same speed or at different speeds. As an alternative, the drive system may move the conveyor belt, while the lines are engaging the conveyor belt so as to be driven by the conveyor belt.
Preferably, a belt conveyor used for freezing of food products comprises impingement means directed towards at least one side of the conveyor belt along the conveyance path. The impingement means directs cold air at the food products in separate jets, thereby facilitating the freezing process.
Obviously, the belt conveyor may form part of a food treating apparatus which besides the conveyor belt comprises a housing, through which the conveyor belt is intended to convey food articles, a heat exchanger, and fan means for blowing air through the heat exchanger and against at least one side of the conveyor belt along the conveyance path. When the treatment of the food articles is freezing, the heat exchanger is an evaporator.


REFERENCES:
patent: 1755721 (1930-04-01), Winkler et al.
patent: 2456031 (1948-12-01), Spain
patent: 3068989 (1962-12-01), Packman et al.
patent: 4368664 (1983-01-01), Smith et al.
patent: 5148923 (1992-09-01), Fraenkel et al.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Belt conveyor does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Belt conveyor, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Belt conveyor will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2617479