US1857898A - Distributor conveyer - Google Patents

Description

May 10, 1932. J. J WALLACE I DISTRIBUTOR CONVEYER 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Jwuemtoz Filed April 1, 1951 l I l l ll Lilll lfi lirl 1 y 1932- -J. .1. WALLACE 1,857,898

DISTRIBUTOR CONVEYER Filed April 1, 1931 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 3W tie/Fr I]. WaZZace @W WW Q znirraafr Joni: WALLACE,

"distribute cotton 'to any desired number o1 Patented May 10, 1932 or AMITE, Louisiana; ass rotten. To nemy, or AMITE, LOUISIANA s men em con mi ies mam a Application filed April 1, 1981."

This invention relates to improvements in, belt conveyers adapted for use in d strrbu tors for a series of cotton gins.

The main'object of the invention is to pro "vide'a distributor conveyer built up' in sec- 1 in any tions of standard length which'can be readilyconnected to each-other or disconnected from each other to providea distributor conveyer'of any desired length and adapted to struction as to render the parts thereof readily accessible for replacement or repair.

Other objects of the invention will become apparent as the detailed description thereof proceeds, i In the drawings: Figure 1 is a side elevation of the distributor conveyer adapted to be applied to a series of gins; Figure 2 is a plan of the conveyerillustrated' in Figure 1; I a i I t Figure 3 is a centrallongitudinal section through the conveyer illustrated in'Figures 1" Figured is a fragmentary front elevation to an enlarged scale of a central section for connecting different sections of-the conveyers to each other; 1

Figure 5 is a vertical transverse section taken on the line 5--5 of Figure 4;

Figure 6 is a side elevation to an enlarged scale of a belt tightening adjusting mechanism forming part of this invention;

Figure is avertical longitudinal section taken on the line 77 of Figure 6; and

' Figure 8 is a perspective view of one of the side plates of the aforesaid central section. Asshown'in the drawings, theinventiori comprisesa casing l 'having side walls'2 and 3, suitably spaced'apartby bottom'sections 4 to provide discharge openings 5' adapted to feed cotton from the said casing into the" hoppers 6 with. The sides 2 and 3 are formed of stiff sheet metal and have their upper edges suitleading to the gin connected there 1 apart the same admire-$21,010;

ably fianged to receive a cover 7 The casing i maybe made up of any desired number of sections having theirl'ends suitably flanged and provided with means for connectingone sectionfto another The number of sections distributor. outfit will depend upon a the number of by the said distributor, 7

In Figures 1a (1' 2'of the drawings the distributor is shown as comprisin g three mainbuilt up in as many separate parts as may be foundconvenient' for handling. The sec tion'A is shown as provided at one end with bearings 8' an'd9 for a driving shaft 10, the

said bearings being suitably'secured to the 7 side walls 2and'3 of the section A.

The-center section Bhas' reinforcing plates 11 and 12 attached to the sides thereof by riveting ;or welding in order to stiffen the sides of this section. The platell and the side of the section to which it is attached, are provided with slots 13through which extend a shaft 14 suitably journaled in hearings to" be described hereinafter-J The reinforcing plate 1 1 'has Z-shaped members I spa'cedapart on'opposite sides of the slot 12-! and parallel thereto in order to receive a housing 17'- towhich the bearings 18 and 19 are suitably secured. F

The housing 17 s; slidably mounted between the Z-shaped'members 15 and 16 in or-- der to provide for tensioning the conveyer belt-by suitable adjustment of the said hous- -'ing and the' shaft car'ried thereby in one di- IQCtlOII or'another on thesaid center sec-- Asimilarpair of Z-shaped members 20 and '21 are secured suitably to the reinforcing" 1ates-12 and parallel to the slot 22 formed in the plate 12; and the side2 of the center section B.

. the housing 17 3 is shdably mounted between: theZ-shaped members-'20 and 21 and bear-5 and 125 are suitably formedonuthev ings 24 H housing23 for the shafts 14 and-26 which extend slidably: through the slots 13 and 22 Thebearings on the housing 23 are spaced distance as the bearings on the housing -17-so that the shafts 114. and 26 l;

ins intended to be supplied a '00 sect1onsA,-B and G, eachof which maybe 15 and 16 A housing 23 similar to p a shaft moving the cotton along the casing 1. The

are constantly parallel to each other and at a fixed distance apart.

A conveyer belt pulley 27 is fixed to the and a similar pulley 28 is fixed to the shaft 14, the said conveyer belt 30 being provided with the usual steel spikes 29 for shaft 10 is the driving shaft and the shaft 14 may be shifted lengthwise ofthe slots in the sides of the center section-B to the tension of the conveyer, belt 30.*

The end of the section G remote from the center section B has the sides thereof provided with reinforcing plates 31 and 3.2 suit.- ably riveted or welded to thesides' 2 and 3 of the section C. These reinforcing plates and the opposite sides of the section G are slotted to permit lengthwise adjustment of'the shaft 33 toward and from the center section The bearings34 and 3.5 for the shaft 33 are.

mounted in the furcations 36 and 37 of a. yoke member 38; The opposite sides of the section C are nrovided with Z-shaped rein.- forcing members. similar to those onthe center section to permit the sliding movement of the furcations 36. and 37 of the yokememberr Y j The shaft. 33 carries a pulley 39; and a conveyer belt 40 extends around this pulley and 41 which is. suitably secured 1 around a pulley to the shaft 26, of the center section B. The belt 40 is provided with spikes similar to those of the belt 30 and serves the same purpose.

The yoke 38 is provided with a boss 42 in which the head 43 of a screwthreaded bolt 44 is suitably secured... The bolt 44 extends freely throughan aperture 45 in a wall 46 having its opposite ends suitably secured to the side walls 2 and 3 (see Figure 7). 1 A nut 48 is threaded onto the bolt .4 and is prov vided with an annular groove 49 which retains the nut rotatably in the aperture 45 of the wall 46. The nut 48 has a bevel gear- 5'() 7 formed thereon; and this bevel gear 50 meshes with a similar gear 51 which is secured to the end of the shaft 52 suitably jour. naled in the wall 3, of the section C and in a brace which extends across the Z-shaped members on the reinforcing: plate 31," .The

shaft 52 has a hand wheel 54; secured to the end thereof, the said hand wheel being adapted by its rotation to operate the bevel gear 50 and nut 48 for adjusting the yoke 38 in one direction or the other to regulate the ten? sion of the conveyer belts.

ings, the shafts. 14 and 26 are provided with sprockets-55 and 5,6, respectively, which are connected operably to. eachother byan end- 41 and thereby move both shafts and 1.4;

regulate the d rawin gs,

. tribution over-said drum.

to tighten the belt 30. It will be obvious, too, that the shaft 10 drives the conveyer belt 30 and through the sprocket wheels 55 and 56 and chain 57 also drive the conveyer belt 40 and in the same direction.

The hoppers 6 are provided with any suitable valves to, control the flow of cotton from the, conveyer distributor; but preferably are provided with valves and valve operating mechanism of the type disclosed and claimed in-my copending application for distributor hopper, fierial No. 524,372, filed March 21, 1931. As shown particularly in Figure 5 of this valve control comprises a pair of plates 58 and 59 rotatably mounted by means of theshafts 60 and 61 in recesses 62 and 63 formed in the lower part of the hop=-' per 6. These valves are normally opened and are adapted to be closed manually by any suitable form of linkage to shut off the flow of cotton through the hopper 6 when desired,

The valve plates 558 meet substantially at the center of the hopper 6 and when opened drop the cotton through the center of the hopper 6 onto the center of the feeder drum to produce a uniform dis? The mounting of thevalve plates in the recesses permits an unobstructed flow of the cotton when the valves are in open position as shown in Figure 5 of the drawings.

The upper stretch of each conveyer belt is supported by a plate or board 64 which is secured between the sides 2 and 3 of the casing 1 in any suitable manner. This board is made of wood or any suitable insulating material in order to prevent the spikes in the distributor belt from coming in contact with any metallic part which might cause sparks and thereby set fire to the inflammable material passing through the conveyer casing. The lower side or bottom of the casing is formed of boards 4 for the same reason, that is, to prevent the tips of the metal spikes from contacting with any metallic parts which would also cause a fire in the contents of the casing.

The manufacture of the casing in sheet metal lends itself to ease of construction and to permanency of the structure, while the arrangement of insulating material wherever there is danger of metallic parts coming in contact with each other, diminishes fire hazard thereby retaining all the advantages. of a metallic construction with those of the p ordinary wooden type of distributor. As clearly shown m Figure 2 of the draw- The particular valve arrangement illustrated in Figure 5 of the drawings is of great advantage inasmuch as it delivers the cotton to the center of the feeder drum, allowing a greater spread ofthe cotton as it is carried over the screen'in the back; of the feeder, thereby permitting better cleaning and less opportunity for choking the feeder.

While I have shown only two distributor nd 59, when closed,

belts in the same casing, it will be quite obvious that the number of belts will depend upon the number of gins to be fed by the conveyer system; and it is obvious that the section may be multiplied indefinitely so long as the last section is provided with a belt tightening device while the intermediate sections are connected to each other by idlers and drive sections similar to the center secm tion B. 1

What I claim is: 1. An endless belt couveyer distributor comprising a sheet metal casing, a pulley journaled in one end of said casing, means for rotating said pulley, the other end of said casing having the side walls thereof provided with slots, a pulley mounted to slide in said slots, means for moving the la st named pulley in said slots, the opposite walls of said casing intermediate the ends thereof being provided with slots, a pair of pulleys slidably and rotatably mounted in the last named slot, means for connecting said pulleys to maintain them in parallelism and at a fixed distance apart during their sliding movement, and means for rotatably connecting one of said pair of pulleys to the other.

2. An endless belt conveyer distributor comprising a sheet metal casing having a cen- 50 ter section detachably connected to the remaining sections of said casing, a reinforcing plate connected to each wall of said center section, guideways mounted on the opposite reinforcing plate, housings slidably in each guideway, and a pair of pulleys journaled in said housings parallel to each other, and means for imparting the rotation of one pulley to the other. 7

3. In a conveyer distributor in which a 40 plurality of endless belt conveyers are associated in alignment, a combined driving and driven connecting unit comprising two parallel spaced shafts,'conveyer pulleys on said shafts. side members each having spaced journals for said shafts, means for mounting said side members to slide in alignment with the conveyer belts and driving means associating said shafts.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

so JEFFREY JOHN WALLACE.

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