Electrostatic holding and conveying apparatus

An electrostatic holding and conveying apparatus comprising a pair of rollers having at least one driving roller;

• an endless conveyer belt extending between said pair of rollers for conveying a sheet-like material thereon by holding it from one side only of said material in contact with the endless conveyer belt, said endless conveyer belt having a base layer of flexible insulative material, two groups of electrodes spaced and disposed on a first surface of said base layer in such a manner that each two adjacent electrodes are positionally separated and electrically insulated from each other and belong to different groups, respectively, a protective layer of flexible material of poor conductivity disposed on the whole of said first surface of said base layer to cover all of said electrodes, and at least two terminals located on one surface of said conveyor belt and electrically connected to said two groups of electrodes, respectively;
• and at least one pair of contact members connected across a high voltage DC source and located to continuously contact said terminals of said conveyer belt, respectively, for applying a high voltage between said two groups of electrodes, thereby establishing an electrostatic flux appearing outside said protective layer of said conveyer belt so that the sheet-like material on the surface of said protective layer of said conveyer belt is electrostatically attracted to and held by the conveyer belt by the action of an electrostatic bonding force between an electrical charge in each electrode and an electrical charge of an opposite polarity induced in the sheet-like material, whereby, when said conveyer belt is driven, the sheet-like material is fed together with said conveyer belt.