Thermodrive LLC

Mol Belting Company

Michael DeGroot

Edward T Mol

James David Honeycutt

S Luke Dickson

Lee M Jorgenson

Victor Tidd

Edward Mol

A thermoplastic endless belt has a smooth outer surface substantially free of discontinuities and an inner surface with a plurality of teeth at a given belt pitch. The teeth are adapted to engage a pulley with circumferentially spaced sheaves at a pulley pitch greater than the belt pitch. The belt is slightly stretchable so that the pulley can drive the endless belt when engaging the teeth within a range of load on the belt. Means are provided to minimize friction between the belt and the drive pulley. Also, a position limiter ensures that the driven tooth stays engaged optimally with the drive sheave.

Low friction, direct drive conveyer belt

Low friction, direct drive conveyor belt

A toothed belt connector for making an endless belt has two leaves, adapted to be connected to each other by knuckles along one or more teeth. Each knuckle has at least one hole extending through tooth portions so that when the holes are in registry, a pin can be extended through the holes to connect the leaves at the teeth. The leaves can be adjoined to the ends of a belt to make the belt endless. The tip end of each knuckle can be beveled or it can have a stepped finger that fits into a cutout on the opposite leaf to keep the end of the knuckle from protruding as the belt wraps around a sprocket.

Thermoplastic belt connector with fingers

An endless conveyor belt has teeth with drive faces raked away from the direction of travel. The belt can be driven by a drive pulley having sheaves with drive faces raked toward the direction of travel. The drive faces on the sheaves engage the drive faces on the teeth to move the belt and the raked angle tends to pull the belt inwardly. A stationary foot assists removing a driven tooth from its corresponding sheave.

Low friction, direct drive conveyor with a raked tooth drive

A thermoplastic endless belt () has a smooth outer surface substantially free of discontinuities and an inner surface with a plurality of teeth () at a given belt pitch. The teeth are adapted to engage a pulley () with circumferentially spaced sheaves () at a pulley pitch greater than the belt pitch. The belt is slightly stretchable so that the pulley can drive the endless belt when engaging the teeth within a range of load on the belt. Means () are provided to minimize friction between the belt and the drive pulley. Also, a position limiter () ensures that the driven tooth stays engaged optimally with the drive sheave.

A conveyor includes an endless belt having teeth with drive faces raked away from the direction of travel. The conveyor also includes a drive pulley having sheaves with drive faces raked toward the direction of travel. The drive faces on the sheaves engage the drive faces on the teeth to move the belt and the raked angle tends to pull the belt inwardly. A stationary foot assists removing a driven tooth from its corresponding sheave.

An endless conveyor belt () comprises a flat belt portion () with strips () of teeth () attached to one side of the flat belt, near the side edges () of the flat belt. In another embodiment, the side edges of the strips are attached to the side edges of the flat belt. In either embodiment, the strips are first attached to the flat belt, and then machined to form a plurality of teeth on each strip. The strips can be of a different material than the flat belt. The conveyor belt can be employed with conveyors having small radius pulleys () and nose bars ().

Conveyor belt with attached strips of teeth

A length of conveyor belt is provided with end sections of fusible material, such as the thermoplastic material, at opposite ends. A continuous belt is formed by the application of heat to end portions of the fusible end sections and by joining by the fusible end sections to each other and cooling the joined end sections.

Conveyor belt joint

A seal for covering a track in a floor is disclosed which is flexible in the upward direction to permit an arm or the like moving on the track to pass through the seal and is considerably less flexible in the downward direction into the channel and capable of supporting a person or equipment traversing the channel. The difference in flexibility in the two directions is obtained by providing a relatively thin material in the area of the hinge section and a relatively thicker material in the cover portion extending over the channel. The relatively thicker material section may be formed by affixing a narrow strip of flexible material to a wider strip of the material. The narrow strip may be affixed to the wider strip by welding or fusing.

Growing community of inventors

Grand Rapids, MI, United States of America

Michael DeGroot