Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor system for moving a specific load as a separate unit – System includes a load supported by a conveyor portion which...
Patent
1994-10-03
1996-06-25
Valenza, Joseph E.
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor system for moving a specific load as a separate unit
System includes a load supported by a conveyor portion which...
198795, 19880301, B65G 3700
Patent
active
055291686
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a system for translationally/rotationally conveying a support member.
Current conveying systems, when these are used in automatic multistation treatment machines, require, to an increasingly significant extent, the ability to employ, and to move precisely, one or more successive support members. In the technology of flexible linear-cabling plants, it is essential, over and above the aforementioned necessary precision of movement, that great utilization flexibility should be possible, especially as regards the recycling of the supports after a treatment or manufacturing cycle.
Among the known techniques for producing such conveying systems, it has been proposed to produce these systems by combining conveyor belts equipped with systems of studs, the supports being able to be slidingly engaged in the aforementioned studs and then driven by the latter, see, in particular, European Patent Application EP-88 430,017. However, in this type of embodiment, the attachment of the supports to the conveyor belt cannot and must not be rigid, so that, in particular, the supports can be recycled after a utilization cycle. For this reason, in the absence of this attachment having a rigid character, recycling can be envisaged only by means of conveyors located in a configuration in one and the same plane, a horizontal plane, by successive translations. Such installations are therefore not very flexible operationally, because of the inevitable floor-area requirements of this type of configuration, see German Patent Application DE-3,327,583.
A system has also been proposed, in Japanese Patent Application JP-A-62 60 708, for translationally/rotationally conveying a support member, comprising two side plates facing each other, each side plate being equipped with straight or circular facing guide channels, and a notched belt moving translationally and/or rotationally near the guide channels. One or more support members, whose base includes teeth engaged in the guide channels and the notches of the notched belt, are driven and guided translationally and/or rotationally. However, the engagement of the teeth of the supports in the notches of the notched belt is not complete and there is a partial overlap and a space between support tooth and notch or step of the notched belt in order to take into account the elongation of the notched belt when it is rotating, the consequence of this being a variation in the positioning of each support when these are being rotated.
Such a device therefore does not permit perfectly stable positioning of the supports on the notched belt, the consequence of this being a limitation in the translational/rotational drive speeds because of the non-negligible risks of vibration of the assembly.
The object of the present invention is to remedy the aforementioned drawbacks by employing a conveying system, of modular character, in which the support elements, although not rigidly integral with a drive belt, can be moved translationally and/or rotationally, whatever the orientation of each support member with respect to the drive belt.
Another object of the present invention is, furthermore, to employ a conveying system, of modular character, in which the configuration of the set of modules, which is formed by one or more elementary conveyors, can be produced in one plane having, in particular, a vertical orientation, this enabling the floor-area requirement of such a conveying system to be substantially reduced.
The system for translationally/rotationally conveying a support member, which is the subject of the present invention, is noteworthy in that it comprises at least one elementary conveyor formed, on the one hand, by two side plates facing each other, each side plate being equipped with straight and/or circular facing guide channels, and by a notched belt moving translationally and/or rotationally near the guide channels and, on the other hand, by one or more support members whose base includes at least two pegs engaged in the guide channels and in the notches of the notche
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patent: 3858519 (1975-01-01), Masino et al.
patent: 3860107 (1975-01-01), Cioni et al.
patent: 4162723 (1979-07-01), Kupper
patent: 5064054 (1991-11-01), Hoppmann et al.
patent: 5464090 (1995-11-01), Lucas
Orange Jackie
Soriano Louis
L'Entreprise Industrielle
Valenza Joseph E.
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