GB665957A - Improvements relating to elevators - Google Patents

Abstract

665,957. Endless conveyers. LEGG, Ltd., R., and LEGG, F. S. Nov. 6, 1950. [Nov. 4, 1949] No. 28318/49. Class 78 (i). An elevator for tobacco or other solid material in fragmentary form, comprises a normally flat endless band which is formed into a closed tube with free overlapping edges while travelling in a straight line from a supporting roller with a horizontal axis and passes as a tube by way of a curved guide to a vertical or inclined guide which surrounds it closely, the band' receiving the material to be conveyed before being formed into a tube and opening out to the flat shape again to discharge the material after leaving the vertical or inclined guide. In the embodiment shown in which tobacco is conveyed from a trough 2 and delivered into a bin 4 on a floor above, the elevator comprises a band 6 which passes over rollers 8 which are mounted at progressively increasing angles to the horizontal so that the band is formed into a travelling trough which progressively deepens. Eventually on reaching a guide 21 it becomes a closed tube with the edges overlapping, Fig. 5, and these edges are held together by V-shaped members 10 forming the guide. These members 10 are carried by the links 12 of an endless chain running on sprockets 14, 16 and a rail 18, and travel with the band, being frictionally driven by it. Thereafter, the band in the form of a tube is led to a guide comprising a tubular member 22. After leaving this guide it opens out and the tobacco contained in it falls on to a shoot 26 leading to the bin 4. Any tobacco adhering to the belt is cleaned off by an adjustable rotary brush 28. The band eventually passes over a driving drum 24 driven by a motor 30. Fig. 6 shows a modified guide 22 comprising four rollers 34. A winnower 9 in the trough 2 adjusts the feed to the elevator.