PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16142281
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-09
Publication Date: 2019-03
Patent Classification: ["198", "301000"]

Abstract:
A hydraulic actuator is provided within a belt-type agricultural conveyor for controlling the position of the tension roller of the conveyor belt, together with a hydraulic controller which supplies a controlled pressure of hydraulic fluid to the hydraulic actuator. In this manner, a consistent tension can be applied to the endless conveyor belt in an automated manner through a large range of movement so that the maintenance step of periodically removing a section of the belt as the belt stretches can be minimized in frequency. Furthermore, the endless belt is always operated at an optimum tension for extending the life of the belt. The hydraulic actuator also enables the tension to be removed from the belt in a simple manner by displacing a switch to remove tension from the belt whenever the conveyor is not in use for yet further extending the life of the conveyor belt.

Claim (Index 1):
An agricultural conveyor comprising:\n a main frame supported on wheels for rolling movement across a ground surface; a housing supported on the main frame, the housing including (i) a tube portion extending in a longitudinal direction at an upward slope from an inlet end of the tube portion to an outlet end of the tube portion and (ii) a pickup portion connected to the inlet end having an open top end; an endless conveyor belt received within the housing to define an upper run of the endless conveyor belt and a lower run of the endless conveyor belt below the upper run; a belt positioning assembly supporting the endless conveyor belt to convey material from the open top end of the pickup portion of the housing to the outlet end of the tube portion of the housing, the belt positioning assembly comprising:\n (i) pickup rollers supported in the pickup portion of the housing; \n (ii) conveyor rollers supported at opposing ends of the tube portion of the housing; \n (iii) an upper intermediate roller supported below the upper run of the endless conveyor belt so as to be positioned between the inlet end and the outlet end of the tube portion in the longitudinal direction; and \n (iv) a lower intermediate roller supported below the upper run of the endless convey so as to be positioned between the inlet end of the tube portion and the upper intermediate roller in the longitudinal direction; \n the upper run of the endless conveyor belt comprising a first upper belt portion spanning below the open top end between the pickup rollers within the pickup portion of the housing and a second upper belt portion extending through the tube portion of the housing from the inlet end to the outlet end between the conveyor rollers; the lower run of the endless conveyor belt comprising a first lower belt portion extending from the outlet end of the tube portion to the lower intermediate roller, a second lower belt portion extending between the lower intermediate roller and the upper intermediate roller, and a third lower belt portion extending from the upper intermediate roller to the pickup rollers within the pickup portion of the housing; the belt positioning assembly further comprising a track on the tube portion of the housing extending in the longitudinal direction of the tube portion and a carriage mounted on the track so as to be slidable along the track in the longitudinal direction of the tube portion; one of the upper intermediate roller and the lower intermediate roller comprising a fixed roller being fixed in position relative to the tube portion of the housing; one of the upper intermediate roller and the lower intermediate roller comprising a tensioning roller supported on the carriage so as to be movable with the carriage in the longitudinal direction relative to the tube portion of the housing; a hydraulic linear actuator operatively connected between the housing and the carriage such that extension and contraction of the hydraulic linear actuator displaces the tension roller on the carriage relative to the housing so as to vary a length of a path of the endless conveyor belt defined by the belt positioning system; and a hydraulic controller operatively connected to the hydraulic linear actuator so as to be arranged to supply a controlled pressure of hydraulic fluid to the hydraulic linear actuator corresponding to a prescribed tension of the endless conveyor belt.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 35.0
- Percentile: 97.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.0
- Patent Class: 198.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['12246015', '14390175', '14527991', '15488756', '14422090']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.7434541586480012
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.4685001930430619
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.7159587620875073
- Mean Citation Score: 249.921154
- Max Citation Score: 254.17522
- Similarity Product: 207.8183896851588

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test