Conveyor-belt clip and apparatus for applying same

The device for setting a row of clips onto a portion of a conveyor belt whereby said clips can connect two parts of said belt and each of said clips comprises:

• a U-shaped clip body straddling a portion of said belt and having bowed parts lying along opposite sides of said portion, said clip body being formed with a pivot element adapted to interdigitate with pivot elements of another clip on another belt portion so that said pivot elements are connectable by a pin traversing said pivot elements, one of said bowed parts being formed with a pair of entry apertures, the other of said bowed parts being formed with a pair of exit apertures respectively aligned with said entry apertures, a respective re-entrant aperture associated with each of said exit apertures and a respective groove connecting each of said exit apertures and the respective re-entrant aperture;
• and
• a staple driven through the portion of said belt straddled by said U-shaped clip body and having a pair of tines connected by a connecting part lying along said one of said bowed parts, said tines traversing said pair of entry apertures, said portion of said belt and said exit apertures, and being bent to lie in said grooves and pass inwardly through said re-entrant apertures to terminate between said bowed parts within said clip body, said device comprising a support bar forming an anvil and provided at regular intervals with a plurality of protuberances formed as means for locating the clips to be secured to said portion and with respective seats, and a manual guiding tool comprising a staple-driven drift engageable in said seats, said anvil being formed with curved grooves receiving the tines of the respective staples for automatically bending said tines to engage in the respective re-entrant apertures for receiving said tines between the bowed parts of the respective clip body.