Improvements in Flanged Belts for Use in connection with Concentrators and like Mining Machinery.
Year: 1896

page_text: Communicated from abroad by the REVERE RUBBER COMPANY, Incorporated, of
63 Franklin Street, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.]
Improvements in Flanged Belts for Use in connection with
Concentrators and like Mining Machinery.
I, DAVID YOUNG, Patent Agent, of the Firm of D. Young & Co., of 11 and 12
Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., do hereby declare the nature of this
invention to be as follows:-
The object of this invention is to provide au improved elastic flanged belt for
use on concentrators and like mining machinery, whereby the objections hereto-
fore experienced in the use of belts of this kind or class are avoided.
Belts having vertical flanges at their edges are well-known for treating web
pulp, that is, finely pulverized ore with abundance of water. In practice
stream of this liquid pulp flows downwardly on the ascending face of the belt,
which runs in an inclined position. The belt travels against the descending
stream and is subjected to a violent shaking motion from side to side. The flanges
tend to retain the pulp on the belt surface, but they are subject to great strain
and stretch in passing around the supporting rollers, and the stretch soon breaks
the extreme tip or edge of the flange, allowing the liquid pulp to break out and
splash or slop over, wasting valuable material and fouling the machine.
In some prior belts the flanges taper to a thin upper edge, such edge being turned
back upon itself, outwardly or inwardly, so that the extreme edge of the flange is
nearer to the plane of the belt than is its intermediate portion. Hollow. flanges
have also been proposed, and solid ones of greater breadth than height. Another
form has oblique flanges which "meet the surface of the belt at an acute angle,"
and "in passing over the rollers they lie down on the belt." None of these forms
possesses the advantages of my belt in facility of manufacturo, proper- lateral
resistance to the escape of the pulp, and inward folding of the flanges in passing
the rollers without lying down upon and into the pulp.
By my improvements the belt-flanges curve inwardly toward each other and
the longitudinal centre of the belt, with a slight taper from their vertical baso
to the rounded upper edge; and when the strain comes in passing around the
supporting rollers, the upper edge of the flange, instead of being broken by
undue stretch, inclines downwardly towards the body of the belt on the periphery
of the roller and flattens out or tends to fold thereon. The flanges thus bend
instead of breaking. At the same time the inward curvature of the flanges has
the mechanical advantage of presenting a more effective resistance to the
splashing of the material than any other form.

page_text: My improved endless belt, therefore, is provided at its edges with yielding
flanges curving inwardly toward the longitudinal centre of the belt, so as to
throw inwardly the material being treated, and to allow the edges of the lenges
to fold downwardly somewhat, in passing around the supporting rollers. The
flat body of the belt is non-extensible, of cloth insertion or alternate layers of
cloth and india-rubber, while the flanges are of vulcanized indiu-rubber only.
The inward curvature begins about one fourth of an inch above the upper surfaco
of the belt, the base of the flanges being practically vertical.
Doted this 18th day of November 1896
D. YOUNG & Co.,
11 & 12 Southampton Buildings, London, W.C.,
Agents for the Applicant.
Improvements in Flanged Belts for Use in connection with
Concentrators and like Mining Machinery.
I, DAVID YOUNG, Patent Agent, of the Firm of 1). Young & Co., of 11 and 12
Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., do hereby declare the nature of this
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
The object of this invention is to provide an improved elastic flanged belt for
Use on concentrators and like mining machinery, whereby the objections
heretofore arising in the use of belts of this class are avoided.
Belts having vertical flanges at their edges are well-known for treating wet
pulp, that is finely pulverised ore, with abundance of water. In practice a
stream of this liquid pulp flows downwardly on the ascending face of the belt,
which runs in an inclined position. The belt travels against the descending
stream and is subjected to a violent shaking motion from side to side The flauges
tend to retain the pulp on the belt-surface, but they are subject to great strain
and stretch in passing around the supporting rollers, and the stretch soon breaks
the extreme tip or edge of the flange, allowing the liquid pulp to break out and
splash or slop over, wasting valuable material and fouling the machine.
In some prior belts the flanges taper to a thin upper edge, such edge being
turned back upon itself, outwardly or inwardly, so that the extreme edge of the
flange is nearer to the plane of the belt than is its intermediate portion. Hollow
flanges have also been proposed, and solid ones of greater breadth than height.
Another form has oblique flanges which "meet the surface of the belt at an acute
angle," and "in passing over the rollers they lie down on the belt."
None of these forms possesses the advantages of my belt in facility of manu-
facture, proper lateral resistance to the escape of the pulp, and inward folding of
the flanges in passing the rollers without lying down upon aud into the pulp.
By my improvement the belt flanges curve inwardly toward each other and
the longitudinal centre of the belt, with a slight taper from their vertical baso
to the rounded upper edge, and when the strain comes, in passing around the
supporting rollers, the unner edge of the flange, instead of being broken by
undue stretch, inclines downwardly towards the body of the belt on the periphery
of the roller and flattens out or tends to fold thereon. The flanges thus bend
instead of breaking.
At the same time the inward curvature of the flanges has the mechanical

page_text: advantage of presenting a more effective resistance to the splashing of the material
than any other form.
The violent sidowise motion, given to the entire belt and its load of pulp, is at
the rate of about two hundred strokes per minute, and the tendency to slop over
is very great. These belts are used in mining camps remote from any source of
supply: hence the importance of durability, and of such shaped flauges as will
prevent waste of the precious metal. The shaking motion drives the liquid pulp
against the marginal flauges, which, on my belt, are vertical at base, and their
upper curved walls deflect the pulp thrown against them, tossing it inwardly
towards the centre of the belt, while the non-folding vertical portion at the base
of each flange prevents pinching and holding some of the material in the angle
of the flange with the surface. The pulp cannot slop over at the end rollers
because the flange does not lie down into it, but merely bends toward it
My improvement therefore consists in an endless belt provided at its edges with
vielding flanges vertical at base, tapering slightly, blunt and rounded at top, and
curving inwardly toward the longitudinal contre of the belt, so as to throw
inwardly the material being treated, and to allow the edges of the flanges to fold
downwardly somewhat, in passing around the supporting rollers. The flat body of
the belt is non-extensible, of cloth insertion or alternate layers of cloth and rubber,
while the flanges are of vulcanized rubber only. The inward curvature begins
about one-fourth of an inch above the upper surface of the belt.
The drawing shows in Figure 1, a sectional perspective view of a portion of my
improved helt, the centre being broken away and the section taken through the
flanged edges, to show their curvature. Fig. 2 is a complete cross section, on a
reduced scale.
A represents the flat body of the belt, made of any desired width and thickness,
of firm duck and rubber in alternate hayers, or what is known as cloth insertion
belting. This body is made endless, of the exact length required when all stretch
is taken out of it.
B is the flange, formed on each edge of the body A, preferably about the same
thickness at base as the belt, and rising vertically above it, say, one-fourth of an
inch, thence, curving inwardly toward the centre of the belt, with a total inward
extension of about five sixteenths of an inch, and a total height above the bottom
of the belt of about one and one eighth inches. The curved flange tapers slightly,
and its upper edge is blunt and rounded.
The flanges are moulded and vulcanized with the body of the belt and are
integral with it.
Now when the belt passes around its supporting rollers or pulleys the inward
curvature of the flanges B enables their upper portions to yield downwardly
toward the pulp-carrying surface of the belt, as indicated by the curved dotted
Jines. This yielding action lessens the distance through which the edge of the
flange would otherwise travel, thus preventing the stretching it would be subject
to if vertical, and adding greatly to its durability. The inward curvature of the
flange resists the tendency of the pulp to splash, incident to the lateral shaking
motion, and throws the material back toward the centre of the belt. There is an
advantage due to making the base of the flange vertical, since its folding move-
ment begins somewhat above the pulp-carrying surface, and the material is not
pinched and held in the angle between the body A and the flange.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is:-
An endless belt having the flat, non-extensible body A and the raised, yielding,
marginal flanges B, blunt and rounded at top, vertical at base and curving
inwardly, toward each other, from a point immediately above the base, and
adapted thus to fold bodily inward and downward over the material on the face

page_text: of the belt, without dipping therein, in passing around the supporting rollers,
substantially as set forth.
Dated this 13th day of September 1897.
D. YOUNG & Co.,
11 & 12 Southampton Buildings, London, W.C.,
Agents for the Applicant.