Conveyor belt for use within a toaster appliance for preventing the pinching of food buns
AssigneeA. J. Antunes & Co.
InventorsJignesh Patel, Chad Elliott, Joe Carone
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A conveyor belt for conveying articles along a conveyor path comprises a plurality of slat members disposed parallel to each other and disposed transversely with respect to the conveyor path, wherein leading and trailing edge portions of the slat members are angled downwardly with respect to the conveying surface upon which articles being conveyed are supported so as to prevent edge portions of the articles being conveyed from being interposed between the leading and trailing edge portions of the slat members so as not to be pinched by adjacent ones of the leading and trailing edge portions of adjacent slat members.
Claims17
An endless conveyor belt for conveying articles in a predetermined direction along a predetermined conveyor path, comprising:
- a plurality of slat members disposed parallel to each other, having predetermined length dimensions, and disposed transversely with respect to said predetermined direction along which said conveyor belt conveys articles along said predetermined conveyor path;
- wherein each one of said plurality of slat members has a main planar surface such that, collectively, said plurality of slat members define a conveying surface upon which articles being conveyed are supported;
- wherein each one of said plurality of slat members has a predetermined width dimension extending in said predetermined direction along which said conveyor belt conveys articles along said predetermined conveyor path;
- and
- wherein free leading and trailing edge portions of each one of said plurality of slat members are angled downwardly at an acute angle with respect to said main planar surface of each one of said plurality of slat members upon which articles being conveyed are supported so as to prevent edge portions of the articles being conveyed from being interposed between said leading and trailing edge portions of said slat members so as not to be pinched by adjacent ones of said leading and trailing edge portions of adjacent ones of said plurality of slat members.
An endless conveyor belt for conveying articles in a predetermined direction along a predetermined conveyor path, comprising:
- a plurality of slat members disposed parallel to each other, having predetermined lengths, and disposed transversely with respect to said predetermined direction along which said conveyor belt conveys articles along said predetermined conveyor path;
- wherein each one of said plurality of slat members has a main planar surface such that, collectively, said plurality of slat members define a conveying surface upon which articles being conveyed are supported;
- wherein each one of said plurality of slat members has a predetermined width extending in said predetermined direction along which said conveyor belt conveys articles along said predetermined conveyor path;
- and
- a plurality of separate rod members respectively fixedly secured to a central underlying surface portion of each one of said plurality of slat members forming an upper run portion of said endless conveyor and having end portions extending beyond said predetermined lengths of each one of said plurality of slat members.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.