Belt conveyor with long-tooth sprockets or drums
AssigneeLaitram, L.L.C.
InventorAchraf Elhassouni
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A belt conveyor comprising a foraminous conveyor belt wrapped around sprockets and a method for helping release products adhering to the conveyor belt. The belt has openings through its thickness and across its length and width that admit sprocket teeth. The whole depth of the teeth is greater than the thickness of the belt so that the teeth protrude past the conveying side of the belt and help release the products off the end of the belt by pushing the products away from, and breaking their adherence to, the conveying side.
Claims7
A conveyor comprising:
- a conveyor belt having openings spaced apart across its width and extending through the thickness of the conveyor belt from an inner side to an outer conveying side;
- a reversing element having teeth extending radially outward to top ends and received in the openings in the rows from the inner side, wherein the top ends of the teeth extend past the outer conveying surface of the conveyor belt.
A method for releasing products and cleaning debris from a conveyor belt, comprising:
- conveying products on the conveying side of a conveyor belt having openings through its thickness;
- wrapping the conveyor belt around the periphery of a rotating reversing element to reverse the direction of the conveyor belt at an end of the conveyor;
- extending teeth that protrude radially outward from the periphery of the reversing element through the openings and past the conveying side of the conveyor belt to push debris out of the openings and break the adherence of the products to the conveying side for transfer off the end of the conveyor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.