Suspension conveyor installation

Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor section – Endless conveyor having means for suspending load

Patent

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Details

198685, 1041724, 1041725, B65G 1700

Patent

active

058199063

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to a suspension conveyor installation comprising roller devices individually displaceable on a rail system, and a drive chain routed along said rail system and having driver elements engaging the roller devices.
The suspension conveyor installation may in particular constitute an installation for sorting objects suspended from respective roller devices, e.g. for sorting coat hangers suspended from respective roller devices with each coat hanger carrying clothes. In such a sorting installation, the objects are either conveyed or they are accumulated in stop paths. To ensure this operation, the driver elements have to be disengaged automatically from a roller device when the latter runs onto a stopped roller device or is to be stopped on its own.
The invention solves the problem of providing a driver mechanism allowing the driver elements to automatically engage and release roller devices that are to be entrained, said driver mechanism permitting a guidance as flexible as possible while being adaptable to varying requirements in a modular manner.
The invention solves said problem by the features that the top ends of the roller devices facing the drive chain each comprise a respective drive receiving element, wherein in the engaged position a driver element engages a respective drive receiving element while being disengaged from the drive receiving element in the disengaged position. The length of the driver elements, as measured in the conveying direction, exceeds the dimension of the roller devices as measured in the conveying direction. The driver elements are arranged as driver plates in the form of link plates mounted to the drive chain such as to be displaceable vertically upwards toward the drive chain, with the links of the link plates being pivotable with respect to each other about axes perpendicular to the drive chain; however, all the links can be displaced towards the drive chain only collectively and parallelly to themselves. The bottom edge, facing away from the drive chain, of each driver element comprises: a lifting ramp, arranged at the leading end of the driver element and extending obliquely with respect to the conveying direction, for lifting the driver element upon abutment; a glider surface, adjoining the lifting ramp and extending in the conveying direction, for maintaining the driver element lifted; and a driver recess, adjoining the glider surface, for receiving the drive receiving element of the respective roller device; wherein in the normal conveying operation, the driver element and the drive receiving element engage each other, thus being in their engaged position, whereas the disengaged position is established or maintained, respectively, by the lifting ramp abutting onto an obstacle or an adjacent roller device, and by the glider surface gliding on said obstacle or on the top end of an adjacent roller device.
Therefore, when the drive receiving element of a roller device is engaged in the driver recess of one of the driver elements, and thus entrained by the latter, the driver element will be urged upwards by a stopper arrangement or by a stopped roller device, in particular by the drive receiving element thereof, when the lifting ramp of the plate-shaped driver abuts onto an obstacle--such as said stopper arrangement or said drive receiving element of the stopped roller device--obstructing the path of the driver element, resulting in the driver recess, and thus the driver element, being released from the drive receiving element of the roller device previously entrained. While passing the stopped roller devices and the stopper arrangement, the particular driver plate is then maintained in the disengaged position because the drive receiving elements of the stopped roller devices, or the stopper arrangement, glide on the glider surface of the driver element until the driver element has passed the stopping arrangement. Thereafter, the driver plate is returned to its engaging position by means of a return spring, or by its own weight, in order to automaticall

REFERENCES:
patent: 3242875 (1966-03-01), Burrows
patent: 3389662 (1968-06-01), Jacoby

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