High efficiency conveyor assembly

Multiple-stage material processing apparatus, comprising:

• a housing;
• and
• a plurality of separate conveyors located within said housing in a stacked relationship, including an uppermost conveyor and a lowermost conveyor,
• said uppermost conveyor comprising—
• a plurality of conveyor pans that travel between and around aligned front and rear sprocket pairs to define generally horizontally extending upper and lower conveyor runs presenting upper and lower longitudinal axes, each pan having opposed, first and second material-carrying surfaces;
• and
• structure supporting said pans so that said first surfaces face upwardly as the pans travel along said upper run, and so that said second surfaces face upwardly as the pans travel along said lower run,
• said pan-supporting structure operable to orient the pans such that material carried on said first pan surfaces along the upper run is transferred to said second pan surfaces along said lower run by passage of the material between the upper and lower runs, said material passage occurring without pivoting of the pans relative to said upper and lower longitudinal axes as the pans travel between said front and rear sprocket pairs, and without pivoting of the pans relative to said front sprockets as the pans travel around the front sprockets,
• said pan-supporting structure also operable to orient the pans as they travel around said rear sprockets such that material carried on said second pan surfaces along said lower run is transferred from the uppermost conveyor to the next adjacent conveyor of said plurality of conveyors;
• and
• apparatus operable to distribute processing air within said housing to dry said material.

An invertible conveyor pan, comprising:

• an elongated base plate having a pair of opposed, material-carrying surfaces, a pair of laterally spaced apart ends, a front margin, and a rear margin;
• a front segment extending forwardly from said front margin;
• a rear segment extending rearwardly from said rear margin,
• said front and rear segments each being of mating, concavo-convex configuration in cross-section;
• an end wall adjacent each of said ends, each end wall having an upper section extending above the base plate and a lower section extending below the base plate, said end plates having fore-and-aft edge surfaces.