Modular article conveyor

• US 4,014,428 A
• Filed: 05/21/1975
• Issued: 03/29/1977
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/1973
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Carl Gilbert Richard Ossbahr
• Original Assignee: Carl Gilbert Richard Ossbahr
• Inventors: Ossbahr, Carl Gilbert Richard
• Primary Examiner(s): Blunk, Evon C.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nase, Jeffrey V.
• Application Number:
  US05/579,613
• Time in Patent Office: 678 Days
• Field of Search: 198/20 R, 198/88, 198/93-97, 198/99-102, 198/162, 198/165, 198/339, 198/345, 198/472, 198/586, 198/592, 198/626, 198/627, 198/628, 198/645, 198/648, 214/16.1 CF, 214/16.4 R, 214/95 R, 104/180, 104/173 R, 104/172 B
• US Class Current: 198/345.3
• CPC Class Codes: B23Q 7/1426 with work holders not rigidly fixed to the transport devices B23Q7/005, B23Q7/035 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 15/14 the load being conveyed between the belts B65G15/18, B65G15/20 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 2201/02 Articles
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 37/02 Flow-sheets for conveyor combinations in warehouses, magazines or workshops
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/5196 Multiple station with conveyor

Abstract

An article conveyor comprises a pair of belts, each trained around a pair of pulleys, with straight stretches between said pulleys. The four straight belt stretches are coplanar and parallel. One pulley for each belt is so driven that the belts move in opposite orbital directions. Corresponding stretches of the two belts are confined to lengthwise motion, as by additional freely rotatable pulleys or by a rail-like member for each of said stretches having a groove in which the belt is slidingly received. Each article carrier has belt engaging portions with long, laterally oppositely opening grooves in which said belt stretches are received, so that said stretches support and drive the carrier.

Claims

1. A conveyor system whereby an article can be transported along a defined path in which the article undergoes a change in the direction of its transporting movement, said conveyor system comprising:

A. a pair of supporting members, one which is movable in opposite directions relative to the other, each of said supporting members having thereon

1. a pair of elongated endless belt elements;

2. two pairs of pulley-like members, one pair for each of said belt elements and around which the belt element is trained;

3. means on each supporting member constraining its pulley-like members to rotate on spaced apart substantially parallel axes and fixing their locations in such relation to one another and to the supporting member that

a. each of said belt elements has straight inner and outer stretches extending lengthwise between its pulley-like members,

b. all portions of the two belt elements are disposed substantially in a single plane, and

c. at least one stretch of each belt element is parallel to its corresponding stretch of the other belt element and is laterally spaced a substantial distance therefrom; and

4. relative to the other 2. The conveyor of claim 1, further characterized by each of said supporting members having:

guide at fixed locations along said parallel stretches of the belt elements, engaging said stretches and cooperating with the belt engaging portions of the carriage to confine them to lengthwise motion.

5. The conveyor system of claim 1 wherein the other of said supporting members is located at a work performing station having article holding means movable in a pair of opposite directions substantially transverse to said belt stretches and cooperable with one another to confine an article on the carriage in a predetermined position and orientation, and wherein said belt elements are made of a resiliently compressible elastic material, the resilience of said material enabling carriage to be displaced slightly in the last mentioned directions so that the article can attain exactly said position and orientation while the belt elements remain in said grooves in the belt engaging portions.

6. The conveyor means of claim 1, further characterized by:

the belt elements being made of elastic material that accommodates small displacements of the carriage relative to the guide means and affords good frictional engagement with the belt engaging portions of the carriage.

2. means for rotatably driving one of the pulley-like members of each of said pairs thereof, said means constraining said driven pulley-like members to rotate at substantially equal circumferential speeds but in opposite directions so that said parallel stretches of the two belt elements move lengthwise in the same direction;

B. means for moving said one supporting member to and from a position relative to the other at which said parallel stretches of the belt elements on the respective supporting members are in endwise adjacent lengthwise aligned relationship with one another; and

C. a carriage comprising

1. a carrier portion that is at least as wide as the distance between the inner stretches of laterally adjacent belt elements and which is substantially entirely spaced in one direction from said plane and has means thereon for carrying an article at its side remote from said plane, and

2.

3. opposite elongated belt engaging portions on said carrier portion projecting therefrom in the direction toward said plane and across said plane and defining oppositely opening grooves in which said parallel stretches of the belt elements are receivable, said belt engaging portion being cooperable with one another and said parallel stretches of the belt elements to support the carrier portion in spaced relation to the belt elements, confine it against substantial motion in all directions transverse to said parallel stretches, and enable it to be frictionally driven by said parallel stretches in the direction of their movement, each of said belt engaging portions having a length substantially greater than the diameter of said pulley like members so that the carriage can pass smoothly from the belt elements on one of said supporting members to those on the other when said one supporting member is in its said one position