Improvements in Compensating Gearing for Conveyors.
Year: 1895

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Compensating Gearing for Conveyors.
I JAMES MAPES DODGE of Clapier and McKean Streets, in Germantown, in
the County of Philadelphia State of Pennsylvania, one of the United States of
America, Mechanical Engineer, 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 my invention is to equalize the strain placed upon the chain or
bars of a conveyor and to obviate the intermittent movement of the conveyor when
driven from a chain or sprocket wheel which is of necessity polygonal.
This object I attain in the manner hereinafter set forth, reference being had to
the accompanying drawings, in which :-
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Figure 1 is a side view of sufficient of a flight conveyor" to illustrate my
invention;
Figure 2 is a diagram; and
"bucket conveyor."
Figure 3 is a side view of the driving end of a
In all conveyors in which one part of the driving wheel is further away from the
centre than another, as illustrated in Figure 1, for instance, and where the shaft is
driven at a uniform speed, the conveyor chain is driven first at one speed, then at
another, and if, for instance, a conveyor is two hundred feet long and each flight is
pushing a load before it, this change of speed places an enormous strain upon the
conveyor chain or bars.
Referring in the first instance to Figures 1 and 2, which illustrate a driving
wheel A having seven buckets or recesses for the reception of the joint sockets of
the conveyor chain B. This chain has a series of flights b' (in the example
illustrated, one at each joint,) and it will be seen that as the wheel turns the speed
of the chain will vary fourteen times during each revolution, the radial control of
the chain alternating from the line to the line, Figure 1, the line being
through the articulated joint and the line y being through a point at the centre of
the link, and as this motion is equivalent to a start and stop fourteen times in a
revolution, it will be seen that the strain is very great causing the chain to break
constantly unless it is made extra heavy to overcome the strain.
I mount on the shaft C which carries the chain wheel A, a gear wheel D which
has as many elevated points d as the wheel A, (seven in the example illustrated,)
and gearing with this wheel D is a pinion E so proportioned as to properly engage
with the said wheel D. The wheels A and D are so set in respect to each other
that when the chain takes the low part of the wheel A a low portion e of the
wheel D is in gear with the pinion and consequently the wheel A is driven at an
increased speed, the pitch line of the wheel D is so proportioned that the chain will
be moved forward at a uniform speed.
It will be understood that my invention can be applied to other conveyors than
those having flights, as for instance in Figure 3, I have illustrated a bucket elevator
to which my invention is applied, and the gear wheel D may if desired be on an
intermediate shaft geared to the shaft C, and the chain wheel A may have more or
less than seven elevated points (the wheel D being made to correspond) without
departing from the nature of my invention.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. The combination of a conveyor chain, a driven chain wheel through which
motion is given to the chain, a driving shaft with a compensating device between
the driving shaft and wheel, whereby the chain is moved continuously forward at a
given speed.
2. The combination of a conveyor chain, a chain wheel, a shaft, an irregular
gear and a pinion driving the said gear, the said gear being so timed with the chain
wheel that the chain is moved continuously forward at a given speed.
3. The arrangement and combination of the parts of a conveyor gear
substantially as hereinbefore described and illustrated in the accompanying
drawings.
Dated this 12th day of February 1895.
JOHNSONS & WILLCOX,
47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C., Agents.