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US 6,585,108 B2Granted
Method and apparatus for monitoring and controlling conveyor position
OwnerTonny A. Travisinventor
Life of this patent
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OwnerTonny A. Travisinventor
Estimating the term…
The method for facilitating the maintenance of a conveyor structure having a long and heavy duty moving conveyor belt mounted on rollers which are mounted on a base, wherein the belt is driven by a drive motor, said method having the steps of establishing one or more stationary zero set points on the structure, providing one or more cycle points on the belt, each cycle point marking the terminus of a designated travel distance of the belt, providing a counter on the structure for measuring the distance traveled by any of the cycle points on the belt beyond one or more designated set points, providing one or more work stations along and in proximity to the belt, and providing a reset device for resetting the counter to a desired starting value when a designated cycle point arrives at a designated set point, spotting one or more event sites on the belt, transmitting a signal to a computer that an event site has been spotted, the computer being provided with data sufficient to determine the distance which the spotted event site must travel to a forward work station, and operating the computer either to signal an operator to control, or to itself control an aspect of the operation of the conveyor structure for enhancing the maintenance of the belt.
The method for facilitating the maintenance of a conveyor structure having a long and heavy duty moving conveyor belt mounted on roller means which are mounted on base means, wherein the belt is driven by drive motor means, comprising the steps of establishing one or more stationary zero set points on said structure, providing one or more cycle points on said belt, each marking the terminus of a designated travel distance of said belt, providing counter means on said conveyor structure for measuring the distance traveled by any of said cycle points on the belt beyond one or more designated set points, providing one or more work stations along and in proximity to said belt, and providing reset means for resetting said counter means to a desired starting value when a designated cycle point arrives at a designated set point, spotting one or more event sites on said belt, transmitting a signal to a computer means that an event site has been spotted, said computer means being provided with data sufficient to determine the distance which said spotted event site must travel to a forward work station, and operating the computer means either to signal an operator to control, or to itself control an aspect of the operation of said conveyor structure for enhancing the maintenance of said belt.
A material conveyor structure having a continuous, long and heavy conveyor belt having spliced sections and being roller mounted on frame means of said conveyor structure, one or more counter means on said structure for measuring the distance traveled by said belt, one or more fixed zero set point means on said conveyor structure, one or more designated cycle point means fixed in linearly spaced locations on said belt, one or more reset means for resetting said counter means to zero each time a selected cycle point travels a measured cycle with respect to a fixed zero point means, one or more work stations positioned along said structure in proximity thereto, means for spotting an event site in the travelling belt and immediately transmitting to computer means the distance which said event site has traveled beyond a zero set point means, said computer means being adapted to calculate the distance the event site has to travel to arrive at a selected work station, and means for providing this distance data to an operator or to electronically operated equipment to control an aspect of the operation of said conveyor structure for enhancing maintenance of said belt or other components of said conveyor structure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.