Method and apparatus for cleaning conveyor belts

The method of stripping debris from the return flight of a conveyor belt, including the steps of driving a conveyor belt at a prescribed surface speed, and tensioning the conveyor belt against the ribs of a ribbed cleaning roller over a wrap angle of about 20.degree. to 45.degree. while driving the cleaning roller at a rate such as to develop a vastly higher speed of the ribs than said surface speed of the conveyor belt.

Conveyor apparatus having a pair of conveyor-supporting rollers remote from each other, a supple endless-loop conveyor belt tensioned about said rollers and providing a material-conveying stretch and a return stretch of the belt between said belt-supporting rollers, said belt being of the order of 1/32-inch thick and whose surface, at least, is of polyurethane, means for operating said belt at a prescribed surface speed, a cleaning roller including ribs having peripheral surfaces that lie in an imaginary cylinder, the ribs having lateral surfaces that intersect the peripheral surfaces of the ribs so as to form pairs of cleaning edges and the ribs being made of polyurethane, said apparatus including wrap-angle determining means for holding a tensioned portion of said return stretch of the belt against the ribs of the cleaning roller so as to form a wrap angle of approximately 20.degree. to 45.degree. around the cleaning roller, and means for driving said cleaning roller so that its ribs sweep along said conveyor belt at a surface speed of the order of ten times the surface speed of said belt.

Conveyor apparatus having a pair of conveyor-supporting rollers remote from each other, a supple endless-loop conveyor belt tensioned about said rollers and providing a material-conveying stretch and a return stretch of the belt between said belt-supporting rollers, means for operating said belt at a prescribed surface speed, a cleaning roller including ribs having peripheral surfaces lying in an imaginary cylinder, said apparatus including wrap-angle determining means for holding a tensioned portion of said return stretch of the belt against the ribs of the cleaning roller so as to bear against said ribs through a wrap angle of approximately 20.degree. to 45.degree. around the cleaning roller, and means for driving said cleaning roller so that its ribs sweep along said conveyor belt at a surface speed many times the surface speed of said belt, the materials that form the surface of said belt and the ribs being related to each other for long endurance despite the bearing and the high speed of the ribs against the surface of the belt.