GB2210012A

GB2210012A - Portable conveyor

Info

Publication number: GB2210012A
Application number: GB8722265A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Ming-Chi Chen
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1987-09-22
Filing date: 1987-09-22
Publication date: 1989-06-01
Anticipated expiration: 2007-09-22
Also published as: SG100291G; HK16692A; GB8722265D0; GB2210012B

Abstract

A compact portable conveyor for use with a truck has a conveyor body formed of two channel members 1 joined by upper and lower cross-members 141, 142 with a flat and smooth support surface 15 on the lower members 142. At both the top and bottom ends of the conveyor body, there are provided respectively an adjustment plate 4 for adjusting the tension of the driving chains 16 which are wound on the sprockets 48 of the driving shafts 47. The driving chains 16 are provided with evenly distributed latitudinal pushing boards 18. The fore section of the conveyor body is provided with a telescopic 3, 31 for height adjustment. A resilient U-shaped bracing strip 33 at the ground end of the support is utilised for locking the support on the two sides of the conveyor body, when not used, for storage purpose. At the lower end of the conveyor is a frame mounting the drive motor 2 and provided with wheels 13. <IMAGE>

Description

PORTABLE CONVEYOR This invention relates to a compact portable conveyor.

The main object of the present invention is to provide a conveyor with a simplified structure to make it convenient to operate and mobile to carry along with a truck without derating its original function.

In the delivery of general agricultural products or commodities nowadays, conveyors are widely utilised at the production locations for loading them on delivery trucks for saving both time and labour, but these types of conveyor are generally large in size and heavy in weight, and cannot be carried to go readily by the same delivery truck to a terminal location for unloading the loads wherefrom.

Therefore, manual labour is required for unloading the truck when it arrives at the terminal location, which creates uneconomical and time consuming problems.

Conveyors for serving the above said purposes are categorised into two types, and their shortcomings are described as follows: 1. Belt type conveyor.

As shown in Figure 1A of the accompanying drawings, this type of conveyor utilises an endless reinforced rubber belt which extends around front and rear driving rollers with a plurality of idle rollers disposed therebetween for supporting the conveyor belt, but this only increases the bulk weight of the whole conveyor. Since the conveyor belt is made of synthetic fibre and rubber, it becomes loosely engaged due to fatigue, which in turn causes slip or poor frictional contact between the belt and the roller surfaces, finally resulting in failure of the whole conveyor.

2. Flat board or thin rod type conveyor.

As shown in Figure 1B of the accompanying drawings, this type of conveyor utilises two longitudinal parallel endless driving chains, one chain at each side, and extending between each pair of corresponding chain segments thereof are multiple latitudinal flat boards or rods, uniformly distributed along these two chains. Furthermore, multiple idle rollers must be provided to support the boards or rods, otherwise the conveying surface in between these two driving chains will become downwardly curved on loading.

From the above description, it can be seen that both types of conveyors are large in size and heavy in weight, and lack the mobility to be carried along by a truck for serving loading and unloading I-rpose at any location.

The invention provides a portable conveyor for truck use, which comprises: a conveyor body comprising two back-to-back placed longitudinal open channel sections, which are joined together by upper and lower latitudinal bracing strips the upper latitudinal bracing strip being provided with a support board, tne lower latitudinal bracing strip being provided with two longitudinal channel sections for further supporting the support boards when they are bent downward due to a heavy load; the ground end of the conveyor body is provided with a mounting frame for fixing a motor; the motor mounting frame being provided with two wheels; the fore section of the conveyor body is provided with a height adjustable support footing which comprises two pairs of telescoped inner tubes and outer tubes, the inner tubes being movable freely along their respective outer tubes and the outer tubes being provided with locking screws for locking the respective inner tubes in place; the top ends of the inner tubes of the support footing being mounted on the respective sides of the conveyor body at the fore section, the ground end of the outer tubes of the support footing being connected together by a resilient U-shaped latitudinal bracing strip with its U-shaped trough facing the conveyor body; the distance between the two outer tubes at the ground end of the support footing being slightly smaller than the latitudinal distance between the two longitudinal channel sections of the conveyor body; and a driving unit which comprises an upper section and a lower section, both of which are provided with adjustment plates extending into the respective channel section of the conveyor body; each adjustment plate being prc-'ided with a bearing and a bearing seat, the bearings receiving driving shafts which are provided with sprockets, and driving chains are wound on these sprockets; each bearing seat is provided with a screw bolt which is utilised for adjusting the tension of the driving chains; the driving chains being provided with evenly distributed latitudinal pushing boards for conveying articles.

An embodiment of this invention will now be described by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings, of which: Figure 1A shows the traditional belt type conveyor; Figure 1B shows the traditional flat board or thin rod type conveyor; Figure 2A is a side view of a further conveyor; Figure 2B is a top view of the conveyor shown in Figure 2A; Figure 3 is an exposed perspective top view of the conveyor shown in Figure 1; Figure 4 is a perspective view of the support footing for the conveyor shown in Figure 1; and Figure 5 is an illustrative diagram which shows how the support footing of the conveyor is folded up for storage.

Referring to Figures 2A, 2B and 3, a conveyor body comprises two back-to-back placed C-shaped or open-channel longitudinal steel or aluminium sections which are joined together by upper and lower latitudinal bracing strips 141 and 142. On the upper latitudinal bracing strips 141, tnere are provided inverted U-shaped support boards 15, having a flat and smooth surface for supporting the transmitted articles as well as for providing these articles, no matter whether they are hard or soft, with a slide moving surface for easy transz. csion. On the lower latitudinal bracing strips 142, there are provided by welding two longitudinal support strips 143, one at each side parallel to the two longitudinal channels 1 for further supporting the support boards 15 when they are bent downward due to heavy load.At the ground end of the conveyor body, there is provided a motor mounting frame 11, which is utilised for fixing a variable or low speed driving motor 2. On the motor mounting frame 11 are provided two wheels 13.

Also at the same ground end of the conveyor, there is provided a stop rack 12 for preventing conveyed articles from falling to the ground.

The driving unit for the conveyor comprises two separate driving sections, an upper driving section which is located on the top end of the conveyor body, and a lower driving section which is located on the ground end thereof, both of which are provided with adjustment plates 4, which extend into the corresponding troughs 111 of the two channels 1.

Each adjustment plate 4 is provided with a bearing seat 41 whereby a bearing is mounted, and utilised for the reception of one of the ends of a driving shaft 47 which is provided with two sprockets 48, one at each side, with two conveying endless chains 16 wound respectively thereon. On each bearing seat 41 there is attached, by welding, an adjustment screw bolt 44, which is mounted on the conveyor body 1 by two nuts 45 by way of an L-shaped adjustment seat 43, so that the adjustment plates 4 can be adjusted along the troughs 111 for tensioning the two conveying chains 16. There are provided a plurality of evenly distributed latitudinal pushing boards 18 for conveying articles by pushing. Each pushing board 18 is fixed to the two conveying chains 16 by screws at its two ends by way of respective L-shaped assembling Eats 19.Also on the bottom side of each pushing board 18, there is provided a rubber cushion strip 17, which prevents the pushing board 18 from rubbing against the support boards.

Referring to Figure 4, the support footing comprises two pairs of telescoped outer and inner tubes 3 and 31 respectively. Each inner tube 31 can move freely along in its respective outer tube 3 which is provided with locking screws 32 to lock the respective inner tube 31 for effecting the conveyor height adjustment.

The top ends of the two inner tubes 31 are mounted on the respective sides at the fore section of the conveyor body by nuts 37 by way of respective side plates 35 and L-shaped steel rods 36. In this manner, the support points will not become deformed when subjected to forces from any direction. At the ground end of the support footing, the two outer tubes are connected together by a U-shaped resilient bracing strip 33 with its U-shaped trough facing the conveyor body 1, the distance between the two outer tubes at the same end being slightly smaller than the latitudinal distance between the two channels 1 of the conveyor body. Referring to Figure 5, when the support footing is folded up to the conveyor body, force is required to spread the two outer tubes 3 so that they engage on the rims of the two channels.

When it is to be utilised, the two outer tubes 3 must be pulled apart to disengage them.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A portable conveyor for truck use, which comprises: a conveyor body comprising two back-to-back placed longitudinal open channel sections (1), which are joined together by upper and lower latitudinal bracing strips (141,142), the upper latitudinal bracing strip being provided with a support board (15), the lower latitudinal bracing strip (142) being provided with two longitudinal support strips (143), one at each side parallel to the two longitudinal channel sections for further supporting the support boards (15) when they are bent downward due to a heavy load; the ground end of the conveyor body is provided with a mounting frame (11) for fixing a motor (2); the motor mounting frame being provided with two wheels (13); the fore section of the conveyor body is provided with a height adjustable support footing which comprises two pairs of telescoped inner tubes (31) and outer tubes (3), the inner tubes (31) being movable freely along their respective outer tubes (3) and the outer tubes being provided with locking screws (32) for locking the respective inner tubes in place; the top ends of the inner tubes (31) of the support footing being mounted on the respective sides of the conveyor body at the fore section, the ground end of the outer tubes (3) of the support footing being connected together by a resilient U-shaped latitudinal bracing strip (33) with its U-shaped trough facing the conveyor body; the distance between the two outer tubes at the ground end of the support footing being slightly smaller than the latitudinal distance between the two longitudinal channel sections (1) of the conveyor body; and a driving unit which comprises an upper section and a lower section, both of which are provided with adjustment plates (4) extending into tile respective channel section (1) of the conveyor body; each adjustment plate (4) being provided with a bearing and a bearing seat (41), the bearings receiving driving shafts (47) which are provided with sprockets (48), and driving chains (16) are wound on these sprockets (48); each bearing seat (41) is.

provided with a screw bolt (44) which is utilised for adjusting tne tension of the driving chains; the driving chains (16) being provided with evenly distributed latitudinal pushing boards (18) for conveying articles.

2. A conveyor substantially as herein described with reference to and as shown in Figures 2 to 5 of the accompanying drawings.