Abstract: A belt guard for a drive belt on a roller conveyor system, that can be positioned adjacent the drive belt and between adjacent conveyor rollers to guard the side edges of the drive belt from inadvertent or intentional entanglement of a person's fingers or other body parts or clothing in the rotating rollers and drive belts. A guard assembly is provided having a first and second belt guard members affixed together and disposed on opposite sides of the drive belt. The invention also includes a roller conveying system that has a plurality of the spaced-apart cylindrical rollers, driven by a plurality of a circular drive belt, and a nip guard system having a plurality of nip guard means that guard the nips and/or sides of the revolving drive belts.

Abstract: A vertical lift assembly for raising a plurality of diverting belts between rollers of a roller conveyor, to engage and raise an object from the surface of the conveyor, and to divert it to the side of the conveyor. The vertical lift assembly uses a plurality of hinges to join together a stationary frame, as a base, and a raisable plate on which sets the diverting belt assembly. The hinge is formed from a section of roller chain. A pair of hinges is disposed along each side of the stationary frame and raisable plate. The hinges provide tilt-free lift of the diverting belt assembly.