Hinged belt conveyor having a protective shield

Abstract

A hinged belt conveyor has an endless hinged belt formed by links. Each link has a lower plate and an upper plate. The lower plates are articulated to one another. In the hinged belt conveyor, the lower plate and the upper plate of the link are arranged at a distance from one another. The upper plates form an outer surface, which forms a substantially gap-free upper side of the hinged belt. The expression “substantially gap-free” in this context means that overlapping regions of two adjacent upper plates are movable relative to one another. For example, chips drop on this side of the hinged belt and are then transported away. The upper plate of a link is connected to the lower plate in such a way that the upper plate is displaceable parallel to the lower plate and perpendicularly in a longitudinal direction of the hinged belt.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.