SANITARY ENDLESS BELT CONVEYOR

• US 3,820,650 A
• Filed: 06/28/1972
• Issued: 06/28/1974
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/1972
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Garvey F
• Original Assignee: Garvey F
• Inventors: GARVEY F
• Application Number:
  US05/267,062
• Time in Patent Office: 730 Days
• US Class Current: 198/860.1
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 21/06 constructed to facilitate rapid assembly or dismantling

Abstract

An endless belt conveyor system, intended particularly for the handling of food materials and ingredients, medicaments and the like, in bulk or in containers during the filling operation, is formed of modules and other components capable of being readily assembled and disassembled in a wide range of selected elements to provide installations of different desired lengths and heights, mounted by structural framing and other parts joined in point contact or very short line contact so as to leave minimal space for the lodging of spilled material and other foreign matter and facilitate periodic cleaning by steam, water jets or the like.

Claims

1. Sanitary endless belt conveyor apparatus comprising two laterally spaced co-planar parallel longitudinal frame members, each of tubular or rod-like shape, longitudinally spaced leg structures mounting said frame members on a floor surface, a plurality of longitudinally spaced belt-supporting transverse roller assemblies, and minimal contact means mounting each of said assemblies on said two frame members, each of said mounting means comprising an upright channel element at each end of the adjacent assembly journaling a roller thereof in the upper portion of said element and having outwardly extending side flanges provided with substantially right angular notches below said roller journal and receiving the adjacent frame member, and a U-bolt standing through the web of the channel element and having a sinuous bight embracing said frame member and contacting the surface thereof at no more than three spaced points, whereby each frame member is held seated in the notches and makes contact therewith only at the point where each notch line is tangent to the curved surface of the member, and whereby open spaces are left around the surface of the member between adjacent contacting points.

2. Sanitary endless belt conveyor apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which each leg structure comprises an upright channel having the upper portion of its side flanges formed with substantially right angular notches, and a U-bolt standing through the web of the channel and having a sinuous bight embracing the member and contacting the surface thereof at no more than three spaced points, whereby the member is held seated in the notches and makes contact therewith at only the points where each notch line is tangent to the curved surface of the number, and whereby open spaces are left around the surface or the member between adjacent contacting points.

3. The conveyor apparatus claimed in claim 2, in which each leg structure includes a lower section having a tubular or rod-like upper portion vertically adjustably connected to said leg structure channel, said connection comprising a pair of vertically spaced substantially right angularly notched ears outwardly projecting from the web of the leg structure channel and a U-bolt standing through said web and having a sinuous bight embracing said upper portion of the lower section and contacting the surface thereof at no more than three spaced points, whereby said upper portion is held seated in the notches and makes contact therewith at only the points where each notch line is tangent to the curved surface of said portion, and whereby open spaces are left around the surface of said upper portion between adjacent contacting points.

4. The conveyor apparatus claimed in claim 2, in which each leg structure includes two upper sections and two lower sections, a transverse tie channel member vertically adjustably mounted on the two lower sections, and the two upper sections have their lower end portions connected in laterally spaced relation to the end portions of the transverse tie channel member.

5. The conveyor apparatus clained in claim 4, in which said last named connection includes plates carried by the transverse tie channel member at the end portions thereof and means connecting each upper leg section to one of said plates in angularly adjustable relation.