Conveyor with troughed low friction, positive drive belt
AssigneeThermodrive LLC
InventorsJames Honeycutt, Allen Hatfield
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A conveyor comprises an endless thermoplastic belt having a substantially flat surface on one side of the belt and a plurality of teeth on the other side of the belt. The teeth are adapted to be driven without tension around a drive sprocket and an idler. The conveyor further includes means to cause the belt to form a longitudinal trough between the drive sprocket and the idler to retain conveyed items on the belt. The means can comprise a discontinuity in the teeth, shortened teeth, and/or guides that apply a force to the edges of the belt.
Claims15
In a conveyor comprising a thermoplastic toothed belt having a substantially smooth outside surface free of discontinuities and a plurality of teeth spaced from each other on an inside surface of the belt, wherein the belt is driven by engagement of the teeth with a drive sprocket, with no more than incidental tension and with low friction around the drive sprocket and an idler with an unsupported span extending between the drive sprocket and the idler, the improvement comprising
- at least one slit or gap in each tooth located equidistant from side edges of the belt to enable the formation of a longitudinal trough in the belt centrally located between the side edges at the unsupported span between the drive sprocket and the idler wherein the longitudinal trough forms in the unsupported span by a force acting on the belt with no more than incidental tension in the belt and provides a channel that tends to hold conveyed items and prevent them from migrating to edges of the belt.
A conveyor comprising:
- a thermoplastic toothed belt having a substantially smooth outside surface free of discontinuities and a plurality of teeth spaced from each other on an inside surface of the belt, driven with no more than incidental tension and with low friction around a drive sprocket and an idler with an unsupported span extending between the drive sprocket and the idler;
- at least one slit or gap in each tooth located equidistant from side edges of the belt to enable the formation of a longitudinal trough in the belt centrally located between the side edges at an unsupported span between the drive sprocket and the idler;
- and
- guides disposed at the edges of the belt to urge the edges to displace relative to the center of the belt to form the longitudinal trough, wherein the longitudinal trough forms in the unsupported span with no more than incidental tension in the belt and provides a channel that tends to hold conveyed items and prevent them from migrating to edges of the belt.
In a conveyer comprising a thermoplastic toothed belt having a substantially smooth outside surface free of discontinuities and a plurality of teeth spaced from each other on an inside surface of the belt extending mostly from one edge to the other edge of the belt, wherein the belt is driven by engagement of the teeth with a drive sprocket with no more than incidental tension and with low friction, the improvement wherein each tooth has at least one slit or gap in each tooth located equidistant from side edges of the belt, whereby a force acting on the belt will cause the belt to form a longitudinal trough centrally located between the side edges.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.