Bi-directional short radius turn conveyor belt

A conveyor belt movable along a transport course involving course turns deviating rightwardly and/or leftwardly of straight transport course runs and which transport course can include course runs which follow spiraling upward and/or downward travel paths, the conveyor belt comprising

• a longitudinal succession of spaced rods arranged in a disposition transversely of the transport course, and
• longitudinal lines of links interconnecting the succession of rods, each link in a line connecting a rod with a following rod in the succession, there being outboard located link lines at each of opposite lateral extremes of the rods and a pair of inboard located link lines each respectively spaced inwardly from a respective outboard link line, a belt section between the inboard link lines comprising a belt central section, belt sections between each inboard link line and a respective outboard link line comprising a belt edge section, the lateral width of the belt central section being greater than the lateral width of either of the belt edge sections,
• links in the inboard link lines having a first pitch which is less than that of a second link pitch in the outboard link lines so that in a straight course belt travel, the links of the inboard link lines are tractive and the links thereof fully extended with the outboard link lines being non-tractive and the links thereof partially collapsed,
• during belt movement through a course turn, the links of the outboard link line at one rod lateral extreme collapsing to a third pitch and the links of the link line at the other rod lateral extreme expanding to a fourth pitch, the links of the inboard link line proximal the expanding outboard link line being tractive and at the said first pitch, the links of the inboard link line proximal the collapsing outboard link line partially collapsing to a pitch which is smaller than said first pitch but larger than said third pitch.