Flat-top side-drive modular conveyor belt

A conveyor belt module comprising:

• a module body in the shape of a block having three pairs of opposite sides:
• a top side and a bottom side spaced apart in a thickness direction;
• a leading side and a trailing side spaced apart in a length direction;
• and
• a left side and a right side spaced apart in a width direction;
• leading hinge elements spaced apart in the width direction across leading spaces along the leading side and trailing hinge elements spaced apart in the width direction across trailing spaces along the trailing side, wherein the leading and trailing hinge elements project outward in the length direction from the leading and trailing sides and wherein the leading hinge elements are aligned with the trailing spaces across the module body and the trailing hinge elements are aligned with the leading spaces across the module body;
• a left-side drive element having a drive-receiving face on the left side of the module body.

A conveyor belt comprising:

• a series of rows of one or more side-by-side block-shaped belt modules, each row having three pairs of opposite sides:
• a top side and a bottom side spaced apart in a thickness direction;
• a leading side and a trailing side spaced apart in a length direction;
• and
• a left side and a right side spaced apart in a width direction;
• leading hinge elements spaced apart in the width direction across leading spaces along the leading side and trailing hinge elements spaced apart in the width direction across trailing spaces along the trailing side, wherein the leading and trailing hinge elements project outward in the length direction from the leading and trailing sides and wherein the leading hinge elements are aligned with the trailing spaces across the module body and the trailing hinge elements are aligned with the leading spaces across the module body so that the leading and trailing hinge elements of each row are received in the trailing and leading spaces of the adjacent rows with the hinge elements interleaved to form a belt loop with the top sides of the rows forming an outer loop surface and the bottom sides forming an inner loop surface;
• wherein at least some of the rows are drive rows including a left-side drive element having a drive-receiving face on the left side.