The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 17, 1991
Filed:
Mar. 02, 1989
Thomas B Huggins, Sr, Columbia, SC (US);
Elwyn Roberts, Lugoff, SC (US);
Melvin O Edmunds, Hopkins, SC (US);
Westinghouse Electric Corp., Pittsburgh, PA (US);
Abstract
A pellet escalator in a pellet loading apparatus for loading nuclear fuel pellets from a pellet press into a sintering boat includes a conveyor in the form of an elongated arm for moving pellets and being pivotable to vertically move its discharge end toward and away from a sintering boat. The arm has an elongated recessed channel through which travels the upper run of an endless flexible conveying belt for transporting pellets from a receiving end to the discharge end of the conveyor. A chute is mounted to the arm at its discharge end and extends therebelow such that the chute is carried by the arm at its discharge end for vertical movement therewith toward and away from the sintering boat. Resiliently-flexible, deflectable bristled brushes are attached to the chute in opposing vertical rows. The brushes in one row are oppositely inclined and vertically offset from brushes in the other row for defining a gravity feed flow path of non-linear configuration between adjacent inner brush ends for transferring pellets downwardly through the chute along the flow path at a drop rate controlled by brush deflections. A stop finger mounted to the arm at its discharge end is actuatable between blocking and unblocking positions in which it respectively stops and permits pellet discharge from the upper run of the belt in the arm channel.