US2196609A - Conveyer - Google Patents

Description

A. REDLER April 9, 1940.

CONVEYER Filed Aug. '7, 1936 g/q wa, (Am m ATTORNEY Patented Apr. 9,1945 e a a 2,196,609

UNITED 'STATES PA TENTy JOFFlCE CONVEYER Arnold Redler, Stroud, England, assignor to Redler Conveyor Company, Quincy, Mass a corporation of -Massachusetts 1 Application August '7, 1936, Serial No. 94,785, In Great Britain August 16, 1935 3Claims. (Cl.198-'-168) v :Thisinvention relates to endless conveyersand the chain 4. 'I'hechain 4 runs beneath a terminal more particularly to conveyers of the open flight sprocket 6- situated within the trough, the end i i type. 'It seeks to provide a construction of conwall I of which may be conveniently curved as at rveyer which may enable economiesto be effected lA'mo'reforless1concentrically with the sprocket 5 in first cost, and also to provide for some degree i6,';'butleavin'g' aclearance forthe passage of the 5 of simplification, particularly inregard to power chain 4 andperhaps some material. The chain transmission means, means for maintaining corruns around j the terminal sprocket B, which is rect ten sion of; a conveyingelement, and in other power. driven by any suitable external source respects. The invention also seeks to provide a connected to its shaft 6A, andreturns over the 10 cheap form of chain which will fulfill certain top of the sprocket more or less in the path shown 1 0 requirements and. in particular may enable an in Fig. 1, and witha definiteslack loop at 4B en'masse conveyer element to be run over a relawhich" is supported by the upper surface .of a

tively small sprocket whereby certain problems battle 8 which comprises a sort of false floor exin relation to speed reduction in transmission tending" acrossthe trough from side to side and t 1' systems may be met. l runsihorizontally throughout the greater part of According to one feature of this invention, the the length er; the trough, but towards the end '1 drivingsprocket in an open flight conveyer of the inclines dowhwardly until its extremity near the endless chain type is made substantially less in sprocket. 6, where it is again curved, upwardly pitchdiameter than the spacing between the .two more or less to follow the sag of the chain at 4B.

runs of the chain, and a type of chain is prefer- 'In'the inclined partfarr opening 8A is formed, r2 ably adopted which will run satisfactorily over. a through whichmaterial may'pass, and the-fact small sprocket, and also means are, preferably that the baffle 8inclines down to a fairly close provided in the form of what may be termed a proximity to the'floor' l means that if more than shield, which will not only obviate or diminish the a certain amount of material is being conveyed risk of the load immersing or jamming .the in the direction 'ofthearrows 4A and towards the 5 sprocket as the chain passes around it,but also j sprocket 6,th'e material will build up in a heap, enable the chain to be runwith varying degrees as illustrated at 9, and will consequently prevent "of slack in its idle or return travel, so that tenthe material on top of the baffle srrom falling sioners or other adjusting means maybe disthrough the opening'8A,sothat material will be pensed with. The type of chain adopted may .conveyed up the slope of the bafiie 8 as indicated= also, whilst affording full, articulation which is at Ill; This'material on top of the baflle 8 may desirable for the passage over the small sprocket, again fall down through the opening therein at minimize the risk of jamming even though its 813, which also may be an ordinary loading open- ,links be packed with the conveyedmaterial; ingjor the conveyer, so that it rejoins the mass r The invention is illustrated in the accompany- 5' and is again available for delivery through the 5 ,ing drawing diagrammatically: Fig. l shows 1a chute 3. Inthis way jamming and overloading is side elevation of one end of a convey er; j"Fig. 2 is prevented; i forxample, there is some ternan enlarged side view of a terminal sprocket and porary obstruction to the outlet of 3, then a part chain passing therethrough; Fig; 3 is a plan view of the load is carried on towards the terminal 6,

v 40 of the device of Fig. 2;Figj4 is a view, similar to and although perhaps mere small and incidental 6 Fig. 2,-of an alternative form of chain and quantities of load simply get carried aroundthe sprocket; and Figf5fis a plan corresponding to sprocket and fallback again through 3A, there Fig. 4. will come a time when this is sufficiently built up 7 In Fig. 1 the open flight conveyer comprises a for the load at ID to form, and consequently for '45 trough with a floor I and vertical parallel walls return to 5 to be effected. This arrangement not 2, the floor having an outlet 3. A chain, diagramonly automatically effects'some degree of evenmatically indicated at 4, runs in the directionof ing out of delivery, but it provides a capacity the arrows 4A along the floor I of the trough. for dealing with temporary overloads or choking Thematerial 5 is carried along within the trough of outlet. The particular form of" sprocket and by the oo-acting links of the chain in the fashion chain which will be described in greater detail 50 or" open flight conveyers, and the trough is, in hereafter, facilitates this in that it enables a accordance with this type of conveyer, of consmall sprocket to beused which will consequently siderable height in relation to the depth of the deal with loads as above described without chain itself. This can be perceived from Fig. l, jamming. Again, the small sprocket is. well. in which the material 5 is seen to be heaped on adapted to operate with a chain with a high 55 and they are interconnected at intervals .by flights in the form of metal strips 14 presenting fiat surfaces in the direction of motion and liaving their ends bent at right angles to form plates as at l5 which are attached to the chains [2 and i l 3 by being carried on an. adjacent pair of pivots, as can be seen more clearly in Fig. 3. The flights l4 span the trough almost completely, and the chains i2 and [3 simply roll around the cylindrical part of the sprocket 6, Whilst the bosses H are so spaced peripherally as .to engage adjacent flights 54in sequence, thus driving the conveyer element as required.

A variation is shown in Figs. 4 and 5, in which a single roller chain is employed; there is again a sprocket 6 of plain cylindrical form, ,butin this case half-way between its ends it has radially projecting sprocket teeth l6 which may conveniently be an actual wheel like a bicycle sprocket, embodied in the sprocket 6. The teeth I6 are engaged by a single roller chain H which has laterally projecting flights l8 formed of strip metal orthe like, with ends bent at [8A for attachment to the chain I1, as can be seen in Fig. 5. In this case, of course, the drive from the sprocket to the chain is through the rollers of the chain, and not through the flights, and the flights are supported during their passage around the terminal by the cylindrical part of the sprocket.

6. In each case it will be seen that the, chain is of a high degree of articulation and can therefore pass readily around a relatively small sprocket, and yet the spacing of adjacent flights is consistent with en masse conveying. It follows that a sprocket may be used which is of appreciably less depth than the conveyer trough, or theconveyed load. The terminal at the other end of the conveyer, which is not shown in the drawing, may simply be a plain cylindrical roller without any chain-engaging. means. Owing to the relative smallness of the driving sprocket of the conveyer, it may be found possible to drive from ordinary sources of power without reduction gearing; for example, the spindle 6A may merely have a pulley perhaps considerably larger than the sprocket itself, and thus economy in cost and weight may be achieved.

- Having now particularly described and ascertainedthe nature of my said invention, and in What manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is:

i. In a conveyer of the character described,

in combination, a casing provided with a discharge outlet, an endless open flight conveyer member traversable through the casing, a driving sprocket around which the conveyer member passes to constitute the lower run of the conveyer the working run, said discharge outlet being disposed at a substantial distance in advance of the driving sprocket, a supporting plate having one end disposed adjacent the sprocket and onto which material passing over the sprocket delivered, said plate constituting a support for the upper run of the conveyer member, saidplate being provided with an opening" through which material being conveyed by the lower run of the conveyer may pass prior to reaching the driving sprocket'when the outlet from the conveyer casing becomes choked to thereby be conveyed by'the upper run of the conveyer member over said supporting plate.

2. In a conveyer of the character described, in combination, a conveyer casing provided with a discharge outlet, an endless open flight conveyer member traversable through the casing, a driving sprocket over which said conveyer member is arranged to pass to constitute the lower run of the conveyer member the workingrun, theportion of the upper run of the conveyer member adjacent the .driving sprocket being disposed a short, distance above the lower working run an outlet in the bottom thereof, a conveyer member of skeleton type arranged to be drawn through the casing, a terminal sprocket over which the conveyer member passes, said outlet being disposed at a substantial distance in advance of the driving sprocket, the lower run of the'conveyer member constituting the working run and a supporting plate for the upper run of the conveyer having an opening disposed adjacent the terminal sprocket and a second opening at a distance therefrom whereby to permit material piling up in advance of the terminal sprocket when the outlet of the conveyer casing is closed to by-pass onto said plate to be conveyed by the upper run of the conveyer member ARNOLD REDLER.

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