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:
Feb. 26, 2002
Filed:
May. 25, 2000
Jerry D. Nohl, Morris, MN (US);
Neil E. Schmidgall, Morris, MN (US);
Darin J. Buss, Morris, MN (US);
Astec Industries Inc., Cattanooga, TN (US);
Abstract
A belt material handling system including conveyor belts supported on a belt conveyor idler support frame. Brackets are provided for supporting one or multiple idler rollers on such a frame. One form of such brackets has a tab for retaining the shafts in the end bracket that can be precisely bent over the shaft end by providing a cut that extends generally at right angles from a slot. The adjacent ends of a center and an outer roller shaft in a center combined bracket are retained by a single tab that can be bent into locking position over adjacent ends of the shafts. A conveyor return bracket can be utilized either as a left- or right-hand bracket or it can be used as a simple rise bracket. This return bracket uses novel shaped flanges which act to position the shaft in an enlarged portion of the slot, then the slotted portion of the shaft is pressed into holding engagement in the narrow portion of the slot. A tab on the flange is then bent over the upper side of the shaft to hold the shaft in locked engagement in the bracket.