Conveyor with troughed low friction, positive drive belt
AssigneeThermodrive LLC
InventorsJames Honeycutt, Allen Hatfield
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A conveyor comprises an endless thermoplastic belt having a substantially flat surface on one side of the belt and a plurality of teeth on the other side of the belt. The teeth are adapted to be driven without tension around a drive sprocket and an idler. The conveyor further includes means to cause the belt to form a longitudinal trough between the drive sprocket and the idler to retain conveyed items on the belt. The means can comprise a discontinuity in the teeth, shortened teeth, and/or guides that apply a force to the edges of the belt.
Claims29
In a conveyor comprising a thermoplastic toothed belt having a substantially flat surface on one side of the belt and a plurality of teeth on the other side of the belt, wherein the teeth are adapted to be driven without tension around a drive sprocket and an idler, the improvement comprising
- means to cause the belt to form a longitudinal trough between the drive sprocket and the idler.
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The improvement according to claim 19, wherein the belt comprises edges that join the sides of the belt, and the means comprises gaps between the tooth and each of the edges of the belt.
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The conveyer according to claim 21, wherein the guides comprise a pair of bars that are mounted beneath the edges and exert an upward force on the edges.
The conveyer according to claim 21, wherein the guides comprise rollers that are mounted beneath the edges and exert an upward force on the edges.
The conveyer according to claim 21, wherein the guides comprise shoes arranged in pairs to receive the edges of the belt, wherein the pairs of shoes exert an inward force on the edges.
A conveyor comprising:
- a thermoplastic toothed belt having a substantially flat surface on one side of the belt and a plurality of teeth on the other side of the belt, driven without tension around a drive sprocket and an idler;
- and
- guides disposed at the edges of the belt to urge the edges to displace relative to the center of the belt to form a longitudinal trough between the drive sprocket and the idler.
In a conveyer comprising a thermoplastic toothed belt having a substantially flat surface on one side of the belt and a plurality of teeth on the other side of the belt extending mostly from one edge to the other edge of the belt, wherein the teeth are adapted to be driven by a sprocket, the improvement wherein each tooth has at least one discontinuity located the same distance between the edges of the belt as the adjacent teeth, whereby a force acting on the belt will cause the belt to form a longitudinal trough aligned with the discontinuities.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.