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AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Interior
InventorsWilliam K. Kleysteuber, William J. Peterson, Jr.
Estimating the term…
An endless conveyor apparatus is capable of transverse bending to negotiate a curve lying substantially in a horizontal plane. Pretensioned elongated elastic beads attached to the edges of a flexible endless conveyor belt accomplishes this by accommodating the difference in travel required by the bend radius differential. Specifically, the elastic beads are pretensioned sufficiently to assure support of the belt edges and resist catenary sag adjacent the inside transverse bend radius. Rollers on the frame of the apparatus engage the elastic beads supporting and driving the belt. A spine may be provided along the longitudinal center line of the conveyor and may be engaged by a plurality of pairs of guide wheels. The elastic beads are shorter than the load portion of the belt to provide for the pretensioning function. Laterally extending corrugations assist in accommodating the transverse bending action and flexible cross lines extend along the corrugations supported from the elastic beads.
An endless conveyor apparatus capable of transverse bending to accommodate a curve lying substantially in the horizontal plane comprising:
An endless conveyor belt adapted to travel around a curve lying substantially in a horizontal plane comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.