U.S. patent number RE31,249 [Application Number 06/317,471] was granted by the patent office on 1983-05-24 for conveyor skirt board and holder.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Martin Engineering Company. Invention is credited to Richard P. Stahura.
United States Patent |
RE31,249 |
Stahura |
May 24, 1983 |
Conveyor skirt board and holder
Abstract
A skirt board and installation arrangement adapted effectively
to seal a moving conveyor belt, including skirt board sections
interlocked with each other and individually adjustable and
removable for replacement, which can be accomplished easily without
major tools and without stopping the conveyor belt. The skirt board
sections are simple to install individually, or by groups and these
operations may be performed while the conveyor belt continues to
run and when installed, maintains a proper and effective seal with
the belt.
Inventors: |
Stahura; Richard P. (Indiana,
PA) |
Assignee: |
Martin Engineering Company
(Neponset, IL)
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Family
ID: |
27371490 |
Appl.
No.: |
06/317,471 |
Filed: |
November 2, 1981 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
Issue Date |
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878236 |
Feb 16, 1978 |
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Reissue of: |
69163 |
Aug 23, 1979 |
04236628 |
Dec 2, 1980 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
198/525;
198/836.1; 222/163; 222/286 |
Current CPC
Class: |
B65G
21/2081 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
B65G
21/20 (20060101); B65G 047/04 () |
Field of
Search: |
;198/525,530,532,534,540,547,550,557,616,836 ;222/163,285,286 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Foreign Patent Documents
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288937 |
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Feb 1915 |
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DE2 |
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2416963 |
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Oct 1975 |
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DE |
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1072026 |
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Jun 1967 |
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GB |
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1256691 |
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Dec 1971 |
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GB |
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1566549 |
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May 1980 |
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GB |
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Primary Examiner: Valenza; Joseph E.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: McWilliams, Mann & Zummer
Parent Case Text
This is a Continuation, of application Ser. No. 878,236, filed Feb.
16, 1978 now abandoned.
Claims
What is claimed is: .[.1. A skirt board installation for a conveyor
having a travelling belt including a mounting plate secured on the
vertical walls of a conveyor loading chute, a plurality of skirt
board sections capable of contacting said belt, means individually
and adjustably mounting said skirt board sections on said mounting
plate to permit adjustment of each section toward said belt and to
retard movement of each section away from said belt, and said skirt
board sections each including generally vertical slides and
guideways along their adjoining edges allowing for said adjustment
and said movement..]. .[.2. A skirt board installation as in claim
1 wherein the individual mounting means comprises cooperating
generally vertical guideways and slides allowing for said
adjustment of the sections toward said belt..]. .[.3. A skirt board
installation as in claim 2 wherein said cooperating guideways and
slides include the means to
retard movement of the sections away from the belt..]. 4. A skirt
board installation for a conveyor having a travelling belt
including a mounting plate secured on at least one of the vertical
walls of a conveyor loading chute, at least one skirt board section
connectible to said mounting plate, a slide and guideway
interlocking connection disposed between said mounting plate and
said skirt board section allowing generally vertical movement of
said skirt board section with respect to said mounting plate and
friction means disposed between said mounting plate and said skirt
board section adapted to permit sliding of said skirt board section
toward said conveyor but to retard movement of said skirt board
section away from said belt, said friction means being disposed in
said slide and guideway
connection. 5. A skirt board installation as in claim 4 including a
plurality of skirt board sections slidable with respect to said
mounting
plate. 6. A skirt board installation as in claim 5 including means
connecting adjacent skirt board sections which allow for relative
vertical
movement with respect to each other. 7. A skirt board installation
as in claim 4 in which at least one mounting plate and at least one
skirt board section is mounted on a plurality of said vertical
walls of said loading
chute. 8. A skirt board installation as in claim 5 wherein said
skirt board sections are each removable and having a notch to
assist in removing each skirt board section upwardly from between
adjoining skirt board
sections. 9. A skirt board installation as in claim 6 wherein said
skirt board sections have interlocking slides and guideways along
their respectively adjoining side edges allowing relative vertical
sliding
movements of the several sections. 10. A skirt board installation
as in claim 4 wherein said slides each include an outwardly
disposed flat face on the respective projecting slides and each
includes serrations on said face disposed to resist sliding
movement of the skirt board sections away from said belt. .Iadd.
11. A skirt board installation for a conveyor having a traveling
belt including at least one mounting plate; a plurality of skirt
board sections disposed above said belt and adapted to contact said
belt and connectible to said mounting plate; a slide and guideway
interlocking connection between said mounting plate and said skirt
board sections allowing generally vertical movement of said skirt
board sections with respect to said mounting plate; and friction
means disposed in said slide and guideway connection between said
mounting plate and said skirt board section adapted to permit
sliding of said skirt board section toward said conveyor but to
retard movement of said skirt board section away from said belt.
.Iaddend..Iadd. 12. A skirt board installation as in claim 11
including means connecting adjacent skirt board sections which
allow for relative vertical movement of each with respect to the
other. .Iaddend.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Heretofore, skirt board devices have involved arrangements which
because of rapid wear by the moving conveyor belt, necessitated
frequent replacement, or constant adjustment which, with the
arrangements used, was difficult and because of the continuous wear
on the devices it was impossible to maintain an effective and
continuous seal between the skirt boards and the moving belt.
It has been the general practice to utilize skirt boarding on
conveyors to provide a seal between the moving conveyor belt and
the stationary bin, or chute, where material is discharged onto the
belt. This particular point is very important to seal because it is
here that a great percentage of the dirt encountered throughout a
plant finds its source. Material escaping from the conveyor at this
loading point becomes scattered throughout the plant and represents
a loss of the material conveyed.
Prior skirt boards were constructed from resilient material, such
as rubber or the like, and were mounted on the conveyor housing by
some means which afforded manual adjustment, in an effort to mate
the board with the conveyor belt in some such manner as might form
an adequate sealing relationship. The seal was extremely difficult
to maintain because of the wear resulting from the abrasion by the
constantly traveling conveyor belt and which made the frequent
adjustments required, almost impossible for maintenance personnel
in the plant to cope with and unless the adjustment was attended to
at regular intervals it was not possible to prevent the material
from escaping from the conveyor system.
Conventional skirt board installations heretofore have provided
arrangements where it was possible to adjust the skirt boards to
obtain a sealing engagement with the conveyor belt but generally,
these prior skirt boards were bolted in place and it became a major
operation to perform the adjustments. The system had to be
completely shutdown, the bolts loosened, the skirt boards adjusted
and then the bolts retightened and each time an adjustment was
required these same steps became necessary to perform and if any
resemblance of an effective seal was attempted to be maintained the
operation had to be repeated quite frequently.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present design for a skirt board installation utilizes an
inventive concept which avoids the problems of such prior art
devices and overcomes the various shortcomings inherent in the
structures heretofore relied upon. This invention provides a skirt
board construction comprised of a plurality of interconnected
sections which are slidably mounted in mounting plates to be moved
toward the conveyor belt for edgewise engagement therewith whereby
each section is capable of being adjusted relative to the belt.
These skirt board sections have interlocking connections at their
adjoining vertical edges which allow relative vertical movement but
constrain the sections for close association with each other. The
individual sections are mounted on guides on the mounting plates
which permit relative downward movement but retard upward movement
of the board sections and such that one or more sections may be
removed and replaced without disturbing adjacent sections and if
necessary, or desirable, this can be done without the necessity for
shutting down the conveyor which would result in a loss of
operating time.
The improvements afforded by this invention provide a simple and
convenient means for installing the skirt boards and for adjusting
them relative to the moving belt. This adjustment can readily be
made merely by tapping individual skirt board sections to move them
downwardly to positions in engagement with the belt, which can be
accomplished without the need for stopping the belt, thus avoiding
complete shut-down of the system.
By thus maintaining the sealing relationship between the skirt
board and the conveyor belt more or less constant, the escape of
material from the belt is prevented and the high labor costs of
cleaning up this lost material is avoided. Present EPA rules
require that plants be kept very clean and in view of which any
material escaping from the conveyor system must be cleaned up and
with prior skirt board arrangements it was not possible to work
around a moving conveyor belt so that it became necessary to shut
down the conveyor system to adjust the skirt in an effort to obtain
a more effective seal and to clean up the lost material.
Shutting down the conveyor system for these purposes resulted in a
serious loss of valuable production time so that the capability of
the present skirt board arrangement to enable the individual skirt
board sections to be tapped into engagement with the belt to
maintain a maximum sealing condition greatly reduces, or
eliminates, the necessity for clean-up operations and stoppage of
the conveyor system.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
It is a primary purpose of this invention to provide a sealing
installation between a stationary bin, or loading chute, and a
traveling conveyor belt which effectively prevents the escape of
material and which may be readily adjusted to maintain a
substantially continuous sealing relationship with the belt.
The principal object of the invention is the provision of a skirt
board installation for conveyors including a plurality of skirt
board sections individually adjustable.
An important object of the invention is to provide a skirt board
installation for conveyors having a plurality of skirt board
sections interlocked together at their adjoining vertical edges and
capable of individual relative vertical movement.
Another object of the invention is the provision of a skirt board
installation for conveyors including a plurality of skirt board
sections having vertical guide means engaged with complemental
guide means on a mounting plate whereby the sections may be
adjusted vertically relative to the mounting plate and with respect
to each other.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a skirt board
installation for conveyors including a plurality of skirt board
sections having vertical guide means engaged with complimental
guide means on a mounting plate for relative vertical movement
wherein the guide means on the mounting plate includes means to
facilitate downward movement of the skirt board sections but
retards upward movement thereof.
A further object of the invention is the provision of a skirt board
installation for conveyors including a plurality of skirt board
sections having interlocking relationship along their adjoining
vertical edges and interlocking relationship between guide means on
such skirt board sections and guide means on a mounting plate
wherein both such relationships provide for relative vertical
movement of the sections with respect to the mounting plate and
each other.
A still further object of the invention is to provide a skirt board
installation for conveyors including a plurality of skirt board
sections mounted for relative vertical sliding movements on a fixed
mounting plate and having a recess, or socket, in each section for
engagement to remove an individual section from its mounting.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The foregoing and other and more specific objects of the invention
are attained by the construction and arrangements illustrated in
the accompanying drawings wherein
FIG. 1 is a general perspective view of a conveyor belt system in
association with a stationary bin, or loading chute, and showing
the skirt board installation of this invention mounted on the
loading chute;
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken on the line 2--2 of FIG. 1
showing the conveyor belt beneath the bin, or chute, with the skirt
boards of this invention engaging the belt at the sides of the
bin;
FIG. 3 is sectional view to larger scale showing the skirt board
installation in greater detail;
FIG. 4 is a top edge plan view of the skirt board installation on
the mounting plate secured on a side wall of the bin utilizing
dovetail slide sections;
FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view of a mounting plate and a
plurality of skirt board sections in separated relationship showing
horizontal serrations on the dovetail section vertical slides;
FIG. 6 is a detail perspective view of a skirt board section of
another form; and
FIG. 7 is a detail perspective view of a somewhat modified mounting
plate and skirt board sections.
DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
As shown in FIG. 1, a hopper bin, or chute 10, is mounted to
discharge its contents onto a traveling conveyor belt system 11.
The conveyor belt runs on rollers 12 located respectively at
opposite ends of its reach and the conveyor belt surface is
supported by idler rollers 13 which carry the conveying surface in
a trough-like shape by reason of the inclined disposition of the
side rollers relative to the bottom center roller (see FIG. 2).
Rollers 14 at spaced intervals support the under side of the
conveyor belt system.
The bin, or chute 10, discharges directly onto the conveyor belt 11
and in order to prevent escape of any material by leakage at the
side and rear edges of the chute, a skirt board installation 15 is
mounted at these edges to seal these areas against the escape of
material deposited on the belt into the surrounding area beyond the
conveyor system. The skirt board installation includes a mounting
plate 16 adapted to be secured on the face of each side wall of the
chute 10, here shown as being rigidly attached by means of welding
17. The mounting plate 16 is provided with a plurality of vertical
slides 18 at longitudinally spaced intervals upon which a plurality
of separate skirt board sections 19 are adapted to be mounted for
relative vertical sliding movements and as best shown in FIGS. 4
and 5, these slides are of dove-tail section whereby to provide an
interlocking connection with the skirt board sections which have
complementally shaped guideways 20 closely fitting and operatively
engaging the slides 18. Thus, the skirt board sections are
restrained against relative longitudinal displacement but may be
moved vertically on the mounting plate slides 18 without affecting
their longitudinal position relative to each other and to the
mounting plate 16.
The individual skirt board sections 19 have interlocking
connections at their vertical edges with adjoining skirt board
sections and these connections take the form of a vertically
extending slide 21 of round section on the edge of one skirt board
section and a complementally shaped guideway 22 of round shape, on
the adjoining skirt board section. This relationship is best
indicated in FIGS. 4 and 5. Thus, the individual skirt board
sections 19 are adapted to have relative vertical sliding movement
with respect to the mounting plate 16 and to each other, without
affecting their interlocking relationship with either.
As best shown in FIG. 5, the outer face of each of the vertical
slides 18 is provided with horizontal serrations 23 which are
shaped to facilitate movement of the skirt board sections 19 in a
downward direction but to resist, or retard upward movement
thereof, as best indicated in FIG. 3. Thus, as the skirt board
sections are adjusted downwardly to engage the belt 11 for more
effective sealing purposes, the adjusted position thereof is
retained by the serrations engagement with the inner faces of the
skirt board sections. It can readily be understood that an
individual skirt board section, or for that matter, several such
sections, can be removed vertically and replaced without affecting
adjoining sections. This is possible because of the relatively
vertical sliding movements permitted by the interlocking
connections 18/20 and 21/22 between the sections 19 and mounting
plate 16 and the adjoining skirt board sections, respectively. To
facilitate sliding movement of one or more individual skirt board
sections an opening, or recess 24, is provided in the outer face of
each such section and when it is necessary, or desirable, to remove
one or more sections, a suitable tool can be inserted in the recess
24 for the purpose of prying, or sliding, the section out of the
assembly. When inserting a new skirt board section, or when
adjusting one or more sections toward the belt, it is necessary
merely to tap the top edge of the section with a suitable hammer,
or mallet, to drive the individual sections in a generally downward
direction for a more effective sealing engagement with the conveyor
belt 11. These operations may be performed without shutting down
the conveyor, if desired, in view of the simplicity of the
operation afforded by this mounting arrangement. Only simple
relative sliding movements of the skirt board sections are involved
in making these adjustments.
The description of the invention hereinbefore makes reference to
relative vertical movements of the skirt board sections with
respect to each other and in regard to the mounting plate but it
must be pointed out that this does not require that the skirt board
sections actually move in a directly vertical direction. The
generally vertical movements of the sections may include a
component of movement whereby the sections would move toward the
conveyor belt, as by means of inclined guideways and slides,
disposed at an angle such as would cause the sections to move
generally vertically toward the belt.
The mounting plate 16 may be fabricated from metal in the form
shown, as preferred, but the skirt board sections 19 are
nonmetallic and may be made from rubber, or a suitable plastic
material such as might be consistent with the type of service to be
encountered with an installation such as herein proposed. The
bottom edge of the skirt board rides on the belt 11 and therefore
must be capable of withstanding this type of wear. However, the
skirt board of this invention is highly adapted to this type of
service and may readily be adjusted to compensate for any wear that
may occur on the bottom edge of the skirt board sections as a
result of the running belt in engagement therewith, merely by
tapping the sections on their upper edges with a hammer, or the
like, to move them downwardly, as necessary, to take up any
developed clearance, which otherwise might result in leakage of the
discharged material.
MODIFIED SKIRT BOARD EMBODIMENT
As illustrated in FIG. 6 a modification of the skirt board sections
19 is shown wherein the skirt board sections are of the same
general dimensions as before and have similar slide and guideway
features 21 and 22, respectively, of round section, at their
opposite side edges and an actuating recess 24 in the front face
thereof. However, this skirt board section utilizes a slide
arrangement and guideway for association with the mounting plate
that is similar to the slide and guideway arrangement 21/22 of
round section whereby all of the slides and complemental guideways
are of similar round section. The skirt board section on its inner
face is provided with a pair of longitudinal spaced guideways 25 of
round shape designed to be complemental to a slide of round section
on a modified mounting plate (not shown).
In this form of the invention the round section which slides on the
mounting plate 16 may also be constructed to retard upward movement
of the skirt board sections 19 once adjustment thereof has been
attained. For this purpose the round section sliding on the
mounting plate may comprise threaded rod sections secured on the
face of the mounting plate 16 by welding or the like. The guideways
25 in the skirt board sections which engage the slides on the
mounting plate may be smooth on their inner surfaces or they might
be provided with generally horizontal ribs on their rounded inner
surfaces which would relate to the threaded portions on the round
slides in a manner to retard upward movement of the skirt board
sections once they have been adjusted downwardly into positions
bearing on the conveyor belt 11.
The skirt board sections 19 of this type will function relative to
a mounting plate and in respect to each other just as the preferred
form does but the modified arrangement facilitates manufacture
inasmuch as all of the slides and guideways are of similar
design.
MODIFIED SKIRT BOARD AND MOUNTING PLATE
FIG. 7 illustrates a further modification of the skirt board
installation which involves changes in the mounting plate as well
as the skirt board section. The outer face 26 of the mounting plate
16 slopes inwardly from top to bottom so that the dovetail slides
18 on this face are inclined at an inward angle whereby the skirt
board sections 19 mounted on the mounting plate by means of the
slides 18 are complemental guideways 20 in the skirt board
sections, are disposed at a similar inclination and engage the
conveyor belt 11 at this angle. The skirt boards are movable toward
or away from the belt on the slides 18 at the angle of the front
surface 26 in making any adjustment of the skirt board sections
relative to the conveyor belt.
The skirt board sections 19 in this form of the invention
incorporate a modified slide and guideway arrangement of their side
edges which may be described as V-shaped. Each skirt board section
19 has a V-shaped slide 27 on one side edge, a complementally
V-shaped guideway 23 on the opposite side edge so that, in
operative position, adjoining skirt board sections interlock
against relative lateral displacement just as in the previous forms
of the invention and are relatively slidable in the same manner as
the previously described versions.
SUMMARY
From the foregoing it will be seen that there has been provided a
skirt board installation for use with a conveyor belt wherein
individual skirt board sections are independently movable toward or
away from the conveyor belt for adjustment, or removal and
replacement and wherein the skirt board sections have interlocking
engagement with a mounting plate and with respect to each other to
maintain operative relationship while permitting adjustment of one
or more sections without the necessity for shutting down the
conveyor operation. The interlocking connections between skirt
board sections and with respect to the mounting plate afford
advantages not heretofore available in maintaining alignment of the
skirt board sections and independent adjustment and renewal.
* * * * *