Patent ID: 7195115

Claim:
A belt conveyor comprising: a conveyor belt constructed of a series of rows of belt links hingedly connected together into an endless loop; a drive shaft; a drive wheel mounted on the drive shaft and drivingly engaging the conveyor belt; a motor coupled to the drive shaft to rotate the drive shaft and the drive wheel; a motor drive connected to the motor to control the speed of the motor; a speed signal generator having a rotary element operatively coupled to the drive shaft and encoded with a detectable speed-profile pattern representing an inverse relationship with the magnitude of the speed variation of the conveyor belt when the drive wheel is driven at a constant angular speed, and having a detector for detecting the variation of the pattern with the rotation of the drive wheel; wherein the speed signal generator sends a speed signal corresponding to the varying pattern to the motor drive to adjust the speed of the motor to compensate for chordal action.