US 12,139,359 B1Granted

Fin belt dump gate system and method

AssigneeHallmark Cards, Incorporated

InventorsHuston Perry Hund, Douglas V. Henderson, Glen Orrin Coats

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Abstract

A dump gate system having a pair of belts configured for rotation in opposite directions and spaced apart to define a gap between the belts. Fins extend outward from the belts. The fins may support an item in the gap when the belts are in a loading position. Each belt may have a tapered section extending from the top of the belt to a lower section of the belt. Each belt may taper toward the other belt in the tapered section to gradually reduce the width of a gap between the belts from the top of each belt to the lower section. The lower sections of the belts may be generally parallel to each other. A drive system may be configured to rotate the belts to move the fins from an initial loading position to a final loading position while items are fed into the gap for support by the fins.

Claims19

Dependent claims

A dump gate system comprising:

a first belt configured for rotation in a first direction;
a second belt configured for rotation in a second direction that is opposite the first direction, the second belt spaced apart from the first belt to present a gap between the first and second belts, wherein each of the first and second belts comprises a tapered section that extends from the top of the respective belt to a lower section of the respective belt, wherein the lower section of each of the belts extends from the tapered section of the respective belt to the bottom of the respective belt, wherein each of the belts tapers toward the other of the belts in the tapered section to gradually reduce the width of the gap from the top of each of the belts to the lower section, and wherein the lower section of the first belt is generally parallel to the lower section of the second belt;
and
first and second fins extending outward from the first and second belts, respectively, the first and second fins configured to support at least one item in the gap when the first and second fins are in a loading position, and the first and second fins configured to dump the at least one item when the first and second belts move the first and second fins, respectively, to a dump position.

1 more element

A method of operating a dump gate system having first and second belts spaced apart from each other to present a gap between the belts, and first and second fins extending outward from the first and second belts, respectively, the method comprising:

feeding a plurality of items into the gap so that the items are supported by the first and second fins while the first and second belts rotate in opposite directions to move the first and second fins from an initial loading position to a final loading position;
and
dumping the plurality of items from the first and second fins by rotating the first and second belts to move the first and second fins from the final loading position to a dump position,
wherein each of the first and second belts comprises a tapered section that extends from the top of the respective belt to a lower section of the respective belt, wherein the lower section of each of the belts extends from the tapered section of the respective belt to the bottom of the respective belt, wherein each of the belts tapers toward the other of the belts in the tapered section to gradually reduce the width of the gap from the top of each of the belts to the lower section, and wherein the lower section of the first belt is generally parallel to the lower section of the second belt.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.