Patent GB-568320-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in and relating to endless chain conveyors
IPC: B65G17/36
Filed: 1943-04-23
Abstract: 568,320. Conveyers. COWEY, L. E. April 23, 1943, No. 6555. [Class 78 (i)] An endless chain conveyer provided with travelling wheels 8 so that it may be installed and operated on tracks 19, 19a or on hard or paved surfaces on quays &c., comprises frames 6 supporting skip or other containers 9 for carrying the goods to be conveyed, the frames being pivotally connected together by links 15 to form a flexible chain adapted to engage and gear with sprocket wheels by which the conveyer is operated. As shown in Fig. 1, the conveyer is adapted for moving, to a discharge station Z, bulky cargoes, e.g. pulpwood logs, unloaded from one or more vessels x berthed alongside a quay &c. y, the chain 1 passing around three sprockets 2, 3, 4, each driven at low speed by an electric motor, and around a fourth sprocket 5 which guides and tensions the chain. The frames 6, formed of circular I-section steel girders, are each mounted on four pneumatic-tyred wheels 8, Fig. 9, each carried in a fork 12 at the lower end of a shaft 13 which is urged downwardly in a sleeve 14 by a spring 13a, a set-screw 14a engaging a reduced portion 13b of the shaft to limit the movement. The containers 9 are cylindrical with a part-spherical base and, to enable them to be tipped'at the discharge station Z, have trunnions 10 engaging bearings 11 in the frames 6. The frames 6 are pivotally connected to the adjacent ends of the links 15 which are formed as lattice girders, each connection comprising a bolt 16, Fig. 8, carrying a distance piece 16a mounting an external sleeve 16b which floats between springs 16c, 16d and forms a roller for engaging the sprockets. The ends of the links 15 between the frames 6 are pivotally connected by means 16x supported on travelling wheels in a manner somewhat similar to that shown in Fig. 9. The sprockets are formed as shown in Fig. 4 with recessed teeth to engage the link connections 16x and rollers 16b and with deep recesses 17 to engage the containers 9. Each driving sprocket 2, 3, 4 is carried by a shaft a, Fig. 11, journalled in a bearing b and having a worm-wheel c gearing with a worm d on the shaft of an electric motor e, whereas the sprocket 5, Fig. 12, is journalled in a bearing b mounted on slides f and connected to a plunger g in a fixed cylinder h connected by an inlet j with a hydraulic circulating system having supply and control valves by means of which the sprocket is held automatically against the conveyer chain 1 at the required tension. In order to tip the containers 9 at the discharge station, a U-shaped tipping rail 17z, Fig. 4, is so fixed that it passes over the sprocket 4 and rises on each side through a curve 17a towards its discharge end 17b, the rail being adapted to engage a roller 18a, Fig. 6, on a trunnion 18 on each container as the container approaches the discharge station so as to tip it gradually, the container returning by gravity to its normal position after passing the discharge station. The tracks 19, 19a, Fig. 1, maybe provided with normallyinoperative electrical contacts connected with automatic power-controlled devices and signal members so that in the event of failure of one of the travelling wheels or its tyre, a brush contact on the wheel axle co-operates with the track contacts to stop the conveyer automatically and a signal device locates the defect. The motors driving the sprockets may be interconnected with each other and with an automatic overload cut-out in order to co-ordinate the operation of the motors and cut off the driving power on the occurrence of an overload.