Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor section – Endless conveyor
Patent
1999-04-23
2000-08-22
Bidwell, James R.
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor section
Endless conveyor
B65G 1554
Patent
active
061057584
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to open webs suitable for use in conveying bodies such as root crops and stones and clods. Such open webs are used in agricultural machinery such as, for example, harvesters, graders and separators. In particular, the invention relates to improvements in the reinforcement of such open webs.
Conventional open webs generally comprise a plurality of rods or bars mounted in parallel spaced apart relation across two or more parallel spaced apart belts, connecting portions of the rods being secured to the belts. Each belt has two ends which are connected to each other so as to form an endless belt which is driven by a drive means, such as drive rollers, of the machinery in which the open web is used.
Our International (PCT) Patent Application No. PCT/GB94/00520, Publication No. WO94/21108 describes an improved open web in which the connecting portions of the rods of the web are embedded within, and bonded to, the elongate belts. This provides an inherently strong and reliable securement of the ends of the rods to the elongate belts for withstanding the rigours of everyday use of the open web in an agricultural environment. To strengthen the elongate belts against the severe tensile strains to which the belts are often subjected during use of the open web, suitable reinforcement is often provided in the form of tapes, strips or cords of tensile material which are embedded within the elongate belts, running along the length of the belts.
As well as tensile strain exerted along their lengths, the elongate belts are also often subjected to components of strain acting generally perpendicularly to the plane of the belts, between the body of the belts and the connecting portions of the rods embedded therein, especially during bending of the belts, for example, where the belts are bent round drive rollers. Such strains tend to pull the rod connecting portions away from the tapes, strips or cords of tensile material and/or vice versa, leading to breakage of the belts, and/or causing gaps to be created between the connecting portions of the rods and the surrounding belt into which gaps soil and/or other debris can accumulate, leading to environmental degradation and ultimately breakage of the belt, tapes, strips or cord. Such breakages are a major problem as they result in substantial down-time of the machinery while the open web is repaired or replaced at significant cost in terms of labour and lost machine usage time.
One way of attempting to overcome these problems is to loop or tie the reinforcing tapes or cords around the connecting portions of the rods. However, this is extremely time consuming and labour intensive during the manufacturing process of the open web, and is also a somewhat error prone operation.
It is an object of the present invention to avoid or minimise one or more of the foregoing disadvantages.
According to a first aspect of the invention an open web suitable for use in conveying bodies such as root crops and stones and clods comprises at least two elongate belts extending parallel to each other in substantially spaced apart relation, a plurality of rods mounted in parallel spaced apart relation across said belts with connecting portions of said rods being substantially enclosed and embedded within the body of said belts, and tensile reinforcing means extending longitudinally in the body of at least one of said belts so as to provide a tensile load support therefor, wherein reinforcing link means is substantially embedded in at least one said belt having tensile reinforcing means embedded therein, said reinforcing link means being formed and arranged so as to link at least one of said rod connecting portions to said tensile reinforcing means whereby said tensile reinforcing means and said at least one rod connecting portion linked thereto are substantially restrained or retained against movement away from one another.
One advantage of the present invention is that by linking one or more of the rod connecting portions to the tensile reinforcing means the open web is st
REFERENCES:
patent: 2255364 (1941-09-01), Pink
patent: 5168981 (1992-12-01), Ruff
patent: 5671839 (1997-09-01), Sanderson
patent: 5692598 (1997-12-01), Rohrs
Bidwell James R.
Reekie Manufacturing Limited
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