Conveyer apparatus having footsteps

A conveyer apparatus comprising:

• a footstep guide rail;
• a plurality of footsteps having footstep rollers moving along the footstep guide rail;
• a footstep chain for connecting the footstep rollers of the footsteps with each other at predetermined pitches;
• a rotation driving device for generating a driving force to move the footsteps in a designated direction;
• and
• a drive sprocket that rotates due to the driving force of the rotation driving device and further transmits the driving force of the rotation driving device to the footstep chain,
• wherein the footstep guide rail is provided in a part thereof in the vicinity of the drive sprocket, with a mountainous or valley-shaped curved part so that a level of the footstep roller changes corresponding to mountainous or valley-shaped contours of the curved part thereby to absorb unevenness in velocity of the footstep roller,
• wherein a velocity of a pitch circle of the drive sprocket is represented by Vt;
• an average velocity of the footstep rollers moving while being connected to the footstep chain is represented by Vo;
• and
• a position where the velocity of the footstep rollers is reduced to change from Vt to Vo is represented by a reference position, and
• wherein there exist a plurality of reference positions along the footstep guide rail, and the curved part is arranged in a part of the footstep guide rail and positioned between a first reference position and a second reference position from the drive sprocket.