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US 2015/0083554 A1Published application
Cleanable conveyor-belt drive system
AssigneeLaitram, L.L.C.
InventorsBryant G. Ragan, Robert L. Rosen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A hygienic drive system for a belt conveyor. The drive system has a stator rigidly mounted in a housing having an outer bearing surface that is continuous with the outer surface of mounting supports and avoids hard-to-clean nooks. A rotor assembly formed by drive wheels rotatably mounted on the outer surface of the housing or by a magnetic belt wrapped around a portion of the outer surface is rotated by a rotating magnetic wave produced by the stator. The stator and rotor can form an induction motor or a synchronous motor.
Claims24
A conveyor drive system comprising:
- a housing having an interior region and a stationary outer bearing surface surrounding the interior region;
- a stator housed stationarily in the interior region of the housing along an axis and energizable to produce a magnetic flux wave rotating about the axis;
- a rotor having an inner bearing surface in contact with the outer bearing surface of the housing, wherein the magnetic flux wave interacts with the rotor to rotate the rotor about the axis along the outer bearing surface of the housing.
A conveyor drive system comprising:
- a tubular housing having a cylindrical outer bearing surface elongated in an axial direction;
- a stator stationarily enclosed within the tubular housing and energizable to produce a magnetic flux wave rotating about the axial direction;
- a rotor assembly having a central axial bore bounded by an inner bearing ring receiving the outer bearing surface of the tubular housing, the rotor assembly further having an outer drive ring coaxial with the inner bearing ring and having peripheral drive structure for driving a conveyor belt, wherein the magnetic flux wave interacts with the rotor assembly to rotate the rotor assembly along the outer bearing surface of the housing about the axial direction and drive the conveyor belt around a portion of the outer bearing surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.