Flexible Steel Lacing Company

Edward C Musil

John H Winkelman

Joseph C Vogrig

Joseph Vogrig

William James Daniels

Alfred E Gladding

Richard B Reynolds

André Ribeiro Daltro-Santos

Jorge Carlos Peña Basulto

A rivet collating system is provided that includes a rivet holder for supporting rivets in a predetermined pattern. In one form, the rivet holder includes a unitary plate in which apertures are configured for supporting the rivets depending therefrom. In another form, the collating system includes a plate body and drive heads that are integrally connected via frangible portions to the plate body. Preferably, retaining webs are provided about the apertures to releasably hold the rivet heads therein. The drive heads are driven downward to sever the frangible portions with the webs flexing to release the rivet heads so that the rivets can be received in bores of a guide block of a belt fastener installation tool. A method of manufacture of the rivet holders is also disclosed.

Rivet collating system including rivet holder and method of forming the same

A rubberized conveyor belt fastener is provided including a plate portion and elastomeric material that extends beyond lateral sides of the plate so that gaps between adjacent plate portions in a conveyor belt splice can be minimized. The plate portions can also include elastomeric material extending over the upper surface thereof to better absorb impact forces therewith. Preferably, the elastomeric material connects a strip of plates together. Both upper and lower plates can be provided with elastomeric material with the lower plates of solid plate fasteners having bolts preassembled thereto deriving the additional benefit of utilizing the elastomeric material to hold the bolt head in its lower plate aperture.

Conveyor belt fasteners

Conveyor belt fastener

A hinged fastener for splicing transverse ends of conveyor belts together with the belt fastener having teeth that are bent from one of the fastener plates for piercing and sinking into the belt to increase the holding power of the fastener. In the preferred form, the fastener is attached to the belt end with two rivets with the teeth being adjacent the rivets to provide a small, low cost, high performance fastener. The teeth are formed by bending them down from the outer edge of the plate and about a bend line parallel to the inner edge of the plate so that the teeth face the belt end to keep the teeth from being pulled through the belt material. The location of the teeth adjacent the rivets maximizes the depth of penetration of the teeth into the belt for improved fastener holding power and minimizes the likelihood that the teeth will be bent upward and lose holding power when the belt is highly tensioned.

Rivet-hinged belt fastener with teeth

A splice assembly is provided for connecting together a pair of belt ends by splice members having elongated tensile members such as cables or straps in a manner which allows for troughing of the belt across its width at the connected belt ends. End members are fastened to the ends of the cables or belts and the belt fasteners have slots or apertures for engageably receiving the ends members of the cables or straps, whereby the cables or straps are affixed to both of the first and second belt ends to be joined along the width of the belt ends. There is a small gap between adjacent belt fasteners which allows for flexion of the belt to allow for the aforementioned troughing of the belt. The belt splice may be provided with a support slab, which protects the cables or belts against abrasion or being snagged and which also maintains a plurality of cables or straps in spaced, generally parallel relation. The opposite ends of the support slab, from which the ends of the cables or straps protrude, are preferably curved inwardly to accommodate the leading end of the belt fasteners to shield this region from particulate sifting. The belt splices extend in a transverse direction to positions closely adjacent one another to reduce sifting of material through spaces between adjacent belt fasteners.

Splice assemblies for connecting belt ends

Disclosed is an integral one piece plastic fastener for securing belt ends together. The fastener has upper and lower plastic plates clasped to a belt end with integral, hollow rivets projecting from the upper plate through openings in the bottom plate and with hollowed ends of the rivets deformed to form rivet heads for maintaining clasping of the plastic plates on the belt end. Also disclosed is a rivet head forming tool which smoothly forms rivet heads by a spinning process in which a rotating tool is forced against the hollow end of the rivet and spun with sufficient velocity and applied with a high force to create a sufficient heat and pressure to cause the end wall of the rivet to curl and turn over radially outwardly to form a rivet head tightly pushing against the lower plate of the fastener.

Method for fastening belt ends together using plastic fasteners with

A splice assembly is provided for connecting together a pair of belt ends by a plurality of short lengths of cable in a manner which allows for troughing of the belt across its width at the connected belt ends. The lengths of cable engage at one of their ends to a first belt end, and engage at their other end to a second belt end, whereby the cables bear a tensile load along their axis. Belt fasteners having slots for engageably receiving the ends of the cables are affixed to both of the first and second belt ends to be joined along the entire width of the belt ends. There is a small gap between adjacent belt fasteners which allows for flexion of the belt thereat to allow for the aforementioned troughing of the belt. In accordance with one aspect of the invention, the cable ends engage with respective belt fasteners in a manner which prevents movement of the cable ends relative to the belt fasteners during operation of the belt. A cable splice is provided in which a support slab, which protects the cables against abrasion or being snagged and which also maintains a plurality of cables in spaced, generally parallel relation to allow a group of cables to be picked up together and inserted into slots in the belt fasteners together. The opposite ends of the support slab, from which the ends of the cables protrude, are shaped and positioned such as being curved inwardly to accommodate the leading end of the belt fasteners at which the cable engages therewith, to shield this region from particulate sifting. The slots in the belt fasteners are preferably positioned on the underside of the belt fasteners to further minimize particulate sifting.

Splice assembly for connecting belt ends

Disclosed is an integral one piece plastic fastener for securing belt ends together. The fastener has upper and lower plastic plates clasped to a belt end with integral, hollow rivets projecting from the upper plate through openings in the bottom plate and with hollowed ends of the rivets deformed to form rivet heads for maintaining clasping of the plastic plates on the belt end. Also disclosed is a rivet head forming tool which smoothly forms rivet heads by a spinning process in which a rotating tool is forced against the hollow end of the rivet and spun with sufficient velocity and applied with a high force to create a sufficient heat and pressure to cause the end wall of the rivet to curl and turn over radially outwardly to from a rivet head tightly pushing against the lower plate of the fastener.

Plastic belt fastener and apparatus therefor

Disclosed is a device for supporting a plurality of rivets in a desired orientation and spacing for insertion of the rivets as a group into the plurality of apertures of a belt fastener. The rivet holder comprises two portions which are releasably interconnected such that the two portions are separable upon application of manual force thereto to release the rivets from the rivet holder as a group upon application of manual force. In one embodiment, the rivet holder comprises two portions which are pivotally interconnected in such a manner that the two portions are not separable until sufficiently pivoted with respect to one another. This prevents the two portions from separating prior to the time of intended use, as may otherwise occur during transport or the like in which there may be forces acting on the rivets tending to force the two rivet holder portions apart which would result in the premature release of the rivets.

Snap apart rivet holder

A belt fastener apparatus and comb assembly is mounted and operable on a frame. The fastener apparatus is particularly applicable to wire loop-type fasteners and includes a locating pin to positively locate the punch and anvil arrangement to inhibit indexing the fastener apparatus prior to punch withdrawal from the comb bed and to provide independently operable punches which sequentially final-clinch a fastener and initially drive staples therethrough to reduce the work load on the fastener apparatus and operation.

Fastening apparatus for securing belt fasteners to a conveyor belt

Plastic belt fastener and method and apparatus therefor

A wire belt fastener is formed from a piece of wire to have a wire body having a pair of arms joined by a U-shaped hinge pin section. The ends of the wire are flattened to form wide areas having grooves to receive the head and the bent ends of a staple. The fasteners are aligned in a juxtaposed array by a connector wire or rod extending normal to the arms and spanning across a series of belt fasteners to space them evenly to receive interdigitated hinge loops of another array of belt fasteners. A belt stop comprising a projecting piece of wire is secured to an inner surface of one arm of the wire belt fastener to be abutted by the cut belt end to limits its insertion into the gap between the arms of the wire belt fastener. To reduce the lateral width of the belt fasteners and to place more metal in the splice, the wire cross-section at the hinge loop is substantially oblong with flat faces of adjacent, intermeshed fasteners being side by side. The wire body is oblong in shape except for the flattened ends without having to cut away metal from the wire body and scraping the severed metal. When bending the wire into a U-shape, the interior hemispherical surface becomes wider than the outer hemispherical surface at the hinge loop.

Wire belt fastener

A fastener and fastener assembly for coupling the ends of a conveyor belt to form a continuous belt where the preferred embodiment is a belt fastener having an upper and lower arm connected by a loop, and having a belt stop positioned to limit insertion of a conveyor belt end. The assembly utilizes a first and second set of fasteners mounted on opposite belt ends which intermesh to define a hinge passage for a hinge pin to couple the belt ends together. The reach-back of the belt ends into the belt fasteners is maximized as the belt stops are aligned with their belt loops and positioned to abut the belt end at a location where the exterior surface of a belt loop of the opposite belt fasteners is engaging or nearly engaging the belt end.

Fastener with increased reach-back

An anti-sifting arrangement for plate and wire-type belt fasteners with hinge loops. A block of flexible material, such as an open-cell reticulated foam, is disposed in the hinge loop area and spans adjacent belt fasteners. A hinge pin inserted into the meshed hinge loops compresses the foam block which also expands to fill the voids between the belt ends, hinge loops and hinge pin to prevent sifting of particulate matter through the splice. The foam block is retained in position by the belt stops or the end of the belt and may be readily inserted or removed from the belt fastener assembly.

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Lyons, IL, United States of America

Edward C Musil