Abstract: A connection for the ends of the supporting straps of an endless bar belt conveyor, especially for agricultural machines, the bars of which are connected to the supporting straps by connecting members such as rivets and screws. Within the region of the two ends of each supporting strap there is provided a connecting member which engages the inner side of the respective adjacent supporting strap and is connected to the supporting strap by means of connecting elements such as rivets or preferably screws. The connecting member comprises a pull-resistant flexible layer which extends in the longitudinal direction of the supporting strap and has a thickness less than the thickness of the supporting straps.

Abstract: An endless single chain conveyor for moving bulk material to separate selective locations. The conveyor has a dropout section including a sliding door movable to an open position to allow material to drop from the conveyor intermediate the ends of the conveyor. Shaker structure movable to an operable position when the door is in its open position has a roller engageable with the chain of the conveyor so that the chain repetitively moves up and down as it rides over the roller so that the material carried by the conveyor will fall through the discharge opening of the dropout section of the conveyor.

Abstract: An apparatus suitable for use in transporting microfiche master frames, preferably containing microfiche, either from a loading station to an operating station and from the operating station selectively back to the loading station for a repeat transport by said apparatus, or to an exit station. The transport apparatus comprises a feed mechanism for feeding a master frame from the loading station to the operating station, and from the operating station to an elevator. The elevator lifts the master frame which is then selectively ejected from the elevator to either a recycle means or an exit means. The exit means delivers the master frames ejected thereto to an exit station from where the master frames may be removed from the transport apparatus, while the recycle means delivers the master frames delivered thereto back to the loading station from where the master frames are recycled through the transport apparatus.

Abstract: A bucket elevator wherein the boot extending between the upright hollow legs of the elevator has a readily removable cover at its upper end. The bucket belt is trained around an idler pulley journalled in the boot. The bearings for the opposite ends of the pulley shaft are mounted on a pair of support rods which extend vertically in the boot and upwardly through the cover thereon. The upper ends of the support rods are accessible from above the cover for adjusting the support rods and the pulley vertically in the boot.

Abstract: An entry roller way for conveying rolled rods and bars in particular flat or profiled rods and bars to a cooling bed has a transverse conveyor apparatus laterally connected thereto, which comprises a laterally displaceable intermediate slide member disposed between a transfer guide member and a stacking channel located adjacent the cooling bed and provided with a vertically displaceable bottom plate. The intermediate slide member is laterally displaceable in the slide plane and is provided with two comb-like edges which correspond to the comb-like edges of the adjacent transfer guide slide and the bottom plate of the stacking groove respectively; the intermediate slide member can be displaced close to the flat rods stacked on the bottom plate without interfering with the removal therefrom.

Abstract: Fruit feeding apparatus which is designed to accommodate loose bulk fruit moving upon an endless conveyor belt and to feed such fruit at right angles from said belt in a plurality of spaced single-file lanes. The apparatus includes a side guide wall adjacent one edge of the conveyor belt which wall has an opening therein to permit fruit to flow laterally from the belt only at a particular location. A hopper is positioned within the opening and includes a plurality of fruit lanes separated by upright lane walls. The lane walls terminate at a position spaced from the conveyor belt, and a shallow fruit supporting shelf extends between the lane walls and the belt. The shelf is of a width less than the diameter of a fruit such that a fruit which is received upon the shelf will be bumped by fruit on the conveyor belt until finding its way into one of the fruit lanes.

Abstract: A safety device for a conveyor belt which comprises a pair of magnets buried in a joint of a belt or buried in the belt with the joint therebetween, with a certain space left therebetween in the lengthwise direction of the belt, a magnetic inductor arranged oppositely to said magnets, an oscillograph connected to said magnetic inductor for self-recording or a detecting device connected to said magnetic inductor for detecting any elongation at the joint in its early stages.

Abstract: In a dough panning device, the dough piece orienter and intermediate guide sheet are mounted to permit longitudinal sliding movement along guide bars so that when the delivery end of the conveyor belt is moved to tension the belt these apparatus will maintain a proper relationship thereto. Also provided are adjustable side guides for the baking pans which may be individually adjusted laterally by means of parallel mounting links which are maintained in adjusted positions by friction clutches.

Abstract: A dual wheel discharge apparatus accepts or rejects cans taken from a can testing wheel. A transfer wheel removes both acceptable and reject cans from the test wheel. The second cooperating wheel is provided with positive action flippers that remove the rejected cans from the transfer wheel.

Abstract: A hanger conveying system which routes hangers from a main screw conveyor onto a conveyor branch where they are transported through a processing station and thence returned to the screw conveyor at a point downstream from that where they were initially removed. Included in the conveyor branch is an endless conveyor of hinged links each having a plurality of hanger hook receiving slots or apertures. Also provided is a downwardly inclined input slick rail which picks off hangers from the main screw conveyor, and a cooperating peripherally notched disc which is spaced in close proximity to a curved section of the input slick rail located at the lower extremity thereof. The disc captures, in its notches, hanger hooks which have been picked off the main screw conveyor and are stacked at the bottom of the inclined input slick rail, and individually feeds the captured hangers in spaced relation to an output slick rail which is upwardly inclined.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for positioning an article to a predetermined position. The article is provided with a temporary orientation tab struck from the article; the tab eventually being cut off in further manufacture of the article. A reciprocating conveyor deposits the article onto a rotating slip-clutch driven mandrel to which the article is pressed by an overhead spring-biased holder. The mandrel rotates with the article until the tab on the article engages a stop on the apparatus whereupon the clutch slips and means on the conveyor clamp the article in oriented position, the conveyor lifting the article off the mandrel and advancing it to the next manufacturing station.

Abstract: An improved carrier system is described for rows of eggs. The system includes elongated open carriers with covers of movable rods permitting the covers to be automatically opened and closed. The carriers are mounted on spaced chains for movement through egg processing stations as, for example, hot water cooking chambers. Means are provided along the chain paths for opening and closing the carrier covers at appropriate positions in the process. The covers are closed when carriers move into the heated cooking water and are opened as the carriers emerge from the water toward an egg discharge station. Pivotal mountings of the carriers on the chains permit them to be dumped by dumping members provided along the chain paths at the egg discharge station.

Abstract: An expandable and retractable conveyor system which comprises a main spiral-type tube conveyor which includes a cylindrical shell containing a screw element which is integral with the cylindrical shell and extends radially from said shell toward the center thereof and at least one additional spiral-type tube conveyor which includes a cylindrical shell containing a screw element which is integral with the cylindrical shell and extends radially from said shell toward the center thereof, said additional spiral-type tube conveyor being slightly smaller than the main spiral-type tube conveyor, with the screw element thereof being in screw-engaging relationship with the screw element of the main spiral-type tube conveyor.

Abstract: The invention concerns a device for maintaining the relative phase shift between an endless conveyor and a rotary or rotatingly indexing table and/or additional conveyors attached thereto, wherein the endless conveyor has a fixedly journalled drive wheel and a displaceably journalled tensioning wheel, process tools e.g. holders, jaws and similar fixtures being attached to the conveyor at equal spacing along its length and being associated with the rotary or indexing tables and/or additional conveyors elements driven synchronously, by means of a common drive, with the conveyor, the drive shafts of the table(s) and/or additional conveyors being linked by a shaft coupling, consisting of an axially fixed sleeve and an axially movable sleeve, the sleeves having complementary helicoidal bearing surfaces with a predetermined pitch of thread, and a transmission, a predetermined transmission ratio connecting the displaceably guided bearing of the sprocket wheel and the axially movable sleeves of the shaft coupling.

Abstract: A hydraulic motor encased with a pulley drives the pulley and thereby drives a belt conveyor. The motor is encased in a stationary housing and is driven by fluid pumped from an external source through a stationary first shaft into the interior of the pulley. The first shaft and a second stationary shaft are supported by brackets which sustain the weight of the assembly. The pulley revolves on bearings on the two shafts. The inner end of the first shaft is supported by one end of the motor housing and the inner end of the second shaft by bearings in a drive flange which is fixed to the motor shaft and to an internal partition of the pulley. The partition is apertured and communicates with a discharge duct in the second shaft so that fluid leaking in the interior of the pulley is discharged.

Abstract: An accumulating roller conveyor comprising a frame, a plurality of longitudinally spaced transversely extending drive rollers rotatably mounted on the frame, a drive extending longitudinally of the frame, and a spring clutch interposed between each drive roller and the drive. A driven roller is rotatably mounted on the frame upstream of each drive roller and an endless belt interconnects the driven and drive roller such that when the drive roller is rotated, the driven roller is rotated. A sensing roller is rotatably mounted on the frame upstream and adjacent each driven roller, and a one-way clutch is provided on each sensing roller. An endless belt interconnects the driven roller and the one-way clutch such that when the driven roller is rotated, the sensing roller is rotated.

Abstract: A conveyor of the low density type comprises two spaced-apart roller assemblies around which an endless wire is entrained to form upper and lower flights consisting of parallel spaced-apart wire lengths. Each roller assembly includes grooved discs or pulleys to support the successive lengths of wire of the flights, the pulleys being mounted on a shaft so as to be independently rotatable. A drive to one of the assemblies includes a slipping clutch to an end pulley, and the remaining pulleys are in frictional engagement so that the drive is transmitted to all the pulleys in that assembly.

Abstract: A combined sorter and conveyor for articles of considerable bulk or weight, characterized by tandem sections articulated for movement between conveying position and discharge position; shock absorber means cushion the attainment of both positions but offer no resistance during initial movement from one position to the other.

Abstract: A device for transferring a load from one roller conveyor to another comprises a support adapted for shifting transversely and parallel to the axes of the rollers of one of the conveyors and lifting elements such as thin blades on said support which are disposed intermediate adjacent conveyor rollers.

Abstract: Each of the meat gripping and moving cylinders in a meat scraping machine may be removed from the machine as a complete subassembly and disassembled quickly and easily for cleaning, without the need for tools. Each cylinder includes a carrier framework mounting removable ring supports which maintain a plurality of separate, toothed, blade-like meat gripping and driving rings in spaced, concentric position on the framework. During assembly, the rings are placed on the framework before the last support is inserted. The last support is then inserted and locked in position, which locks the rings into position on the framework.