Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor section – Endless conveyor
Patent
1994-06-20
1995-03-28
Valenza, Joseph E.
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor section
Endless conveyor
B65G 1508
Patent
active
054008999
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to an endless conveyor belt of the type surrounding the material conveyed and comprising a planar central part which is flexurally rigid in the transverse direction of the belt, as well as two planar edge parts which are hingedly connected to the central part and are flexurally rigid in the transverse direction of the belt.
The invention also concerns a belt conveyor using such a conveyor belt and comprising a frame having support rollers for carrying the belt along at least part of its path.
Such conveyor belts are described in e.g. WO-A1-89/05765 and WO-A1-92/12076, incorporated herein by reference. In these prior-art conveyor belts, the central part is planar and flexurally rigid in the transverse direction of the belt and has low extensibility in the longitudinal direction of the belt. Further, the edge parts are planar and are each hingedly connected to a lateral edge of the central part as well as extendible in the longitudinal direction of the belt. The total width of the edge parts is at least equal to the width of the central part. Finally, two hinge parts are provided each for connecting one of the edge parts to the central part. The hinge parts are flexible in the transverse direction of the belt, extendible in the longitudinal direction of the belt, and resilient so as to pivot the edge parts outwards away from a position in which they are folded over the central part. The hinge parts have a width substantially smaller than that of the central part.
A belt conveyor using such a conveyor belt has several important advantages. It is, for instance, compact, simple, and inexpensive. It also permits sealed conveyance, can be arranged in bends of small radius, entails no spillage of material along the return path, and can be arranged along inclining or even vertical paths.
For certain materials, the conveyor belts described above may, however, suffer from sealing problems at the overlapping area of the edge parts. WO-A1-92/12076, mentioned above, discloses a solution to these problems.
Another inconvenience of prior-art belt conveyors is that they usually require a large number of pressure rollers or the like to achieve the desired sealing effect.
In other types of endless conveyor belts, sealing is achieved by designing one conveyor-belt edge as a hook and providing the other conveyor-belt edge with a slot of a cross-sectional shape corresponding to the shape of the hook. Thus, the conveyor-belt edges can be interlocked in a form-fitting manner. It is, however, quite complicated to introduce the hook into the slot and release it therefrom. Also, the material conveyed may enter and get stuck in the slot, thereby impeding the insertion of the hook into the slot and the aimed-at form-fitting locking action. EP-A1-0 371 180, for instance, discloses a conveyor belt of this type.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,823,941 discloses non-form-fitting joining of the edge portions of a conveyor belt. The belt described in this specification is tube-shaped, i.e. of circular cross-section, and requires extensive reinforcement to enable viable interlocking of the belt edges. However, the belt edges cannot be interlocked in a reliable manner in this conveyor belt.
A first object of the present invention is, therefore, to provide a conveyor belt of the type stated by way of introduction, which enables an improved sealing action without form-fitting interlocking of the belt edges, at the same time as it does not require a large number of rollers for upholding the sealing action.
A second object of the invention is to provide a belt conveyor which is of the type stated by way of introduction and which uses a conveyor belt according to the invention while enabling simple closure or sealing thereof.
According to the invention, the first object is achieved by a conveyor belt which is of the type stated by way of introduction and which is characterised in that the one planar edge part is divided into two portions closest to its free longitudinal edge so as to form a longitudinal flat pocket which is open towa
REFERENCES:
patent: 4823941 (1989-04-01), Mindich
patent: 5060787 (1991-10-01), Tingskog
patent: 5107983 (1992-04-01), Tschantz
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