초록 ▼

A conveyor with a straight pathway has laterally spaced side walls with opposing banks of driven roller assemblies mounted thereon. Each roller assembly has a shaft, a roller, and a driven pulley. The pulleys of assemblies on a side wall are driven by an endless positive drive belt that has teeth fo

A conveyor with a straight pathway has laterally spaced side walls with opposing banks of driven roller assemblies mounted thereon. Each roller assembly has a shaft, a roller, and a driven pulley. The pulleys of assemblies on a side wall are driven by an endless positive drive belt that has teeth for meshing with the grooves on a driven pulley. The belt is maintained in its meshed relationship with the driven pulleys by an anti-camming surface that obstructs the belt from being cammed out of its meshed relationship. The belt is laterally guided by an annular ridge on the pulleys and the outside surface of the side wall. A docking station for product carriers is also described. A transitional conveyor embodiment with a curved pathway has spaced curved alignments of bearing mounts for mounting roller assemblies thereon. The roller assemblies have dual pulleys which are each paired with the dual pulley of an adjacent assembly by an endless belt, such as an O-ring. The rotation of a primary driver pulley is thus passed from pulley to pulley along an alignment.

대표청구항 ▼

A roller conveyor for moving articles along a pathway, said conveyor comprising: A) a pair of laterally spaced parallel side walls extending in the lengthwise direction of said conveyor pathway, each said side wall having an inside surface facing said pathway and an outside surface facing away from

A roller conveyor for moving articles along a pathway, said conveyor comprising: A) a pair of laterally spaced parallel side walls extending in the lengthwise direction of said conveyor pathway, each said side wall having an inside surface facing said pathway and an outside surface facing away from said pathway, B) each said side wall having mounted therein a plurality of driven roller assemblies in spaced relationship along a straight line in the lengthwise direction of said pathway, said assemblies being for supporting the lateral portions of articles moved along said pathway, each said driven roller assembly comprising: i) a rotatable shaft rotatably mounted in the side wall so that an inner stub shaft section projects inside the side wall and an outer stub shaft section projects outside the side wall, ii) a roller carried on said inner stub shaft section of said rotatable shaft for rotation therewith to move articles resting on said roller along said pathway, iii) a driven pulley having axially extending teeth and grooves in its circumferential outer periphery, said outer periphery having a lateral inside edge essentially free of any annular ridge and a lateral outside edge equipped with an annular ridge of a radius at least as great as the radius of said axially extending teeth, said pulley being mounted on said outer stub shaft section of said rotatable shaft in a manner that causes rotation of said shaft with said pulley, said pulley having its lateral inside peripheral edge adjacent the outside surface of the side wall, C) an endless positive drive belt having a positive drive surface formed of transverse teeth and grooves for meshing with the axially extending teeth and grooves of said driven pulleys along a straight drive run free of guide rollers for said drive belt along said straight drive run, and a backing surface of substantially smooth character such that said backing surface provides a substantially flat plane along the length of said straight drive run, said drive run of said drive belt being laterally guided by said conveyor side wall along its inside edge and by the annular ridges of said pulleys along its outside edge, and D) a guide strip having an anti-camming surface extending in proximate relationship lengthwise over said drive belt backing surface along the length of said drive run, said anti-camming surface being such that it serves as an abutment obstructing said drive belt along said drive run from being cammed out of its meshed relationship with said pulleys along said drive run.