Patent ID: 8636139

Claim:
A conveyor for conveying a conveyance object, the conveyor comprising: an elastic flat conveying member looped around a first rotation shaft and a second rotation shaft for undergoing rotation endlessly along a conveying direction of the conveyance object through drive of the first rotation shaft, the conveying member having a plurality of through-holes; transmitting means for transmitting the drive of the first rotation shaft to the second rotation shaft so that the first rotation shaft and the second rotation shaft are synchronized with each other, the transmitting means including a transmitting member looped around the first rotation shaft and the second rotation shaft and being configured to undergo rotation so as to transmit the drive of the first rotation shaft to the second rotation shaft; and suction means for sucking the conveyance object toward the conveying member, the suction means including a guide portion configured to guide the conveying member along the conveying direction, the guide portion including a plurality of openings communicating with the through-holes of the conveying member, a plurality of communication portions communicating with the plurality of openings and arranged along the conveying direction, and rotators arranged between respective adjacent pairs of the communication portions so as to contact the conveying member and so that upper portions of the rotators are flush with an upper surface of the guide portion to maintain the conveying member flat while the conveying member is guided along the conveying direction, the suction device being configured to suck in air from the plurality of openings through the respective communication portions to suck the conveyance object toward the conveying member, and the communication portions defining a plurality of regions via which suction of the conveyance object can be separately controlled to selectively suck preselected regions of the conveyance object.