GB2174350A - Powered-brush cleaners for conveyors - Google Patents

Abstract

A powered-brush cleaner device for an overhead chain conveyor having wheeled trolleys (1) interconnected by a chain (2) and movable along a guide rail (4) includes two contra-rotating brushes (5), one on each side of the rail, each carried at the free end of a respective radius arm (7) pivoted on a support (8) attached to the rail (4). The brushes are movable into and out of engagement with the rail, trolleys and chain preferably under the action of a double-acting fluid-pressure actuator controlled by an automatic timer to effect intermittent cleaning. The brushes preferably rotate about axes inclined at a small angle ( alpha ) the vertical, alternately in opposite directions, so as to clean both vertical surfaces and horizontal surfaces of the conveyor components. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Powered-brush cleaners This invention relates to a powered-brush cleaner device for chain conveyors of the kind having wheel trolleys interconnected by a chain and movable along a guide rail.

Powered-brush cleaner devices are known in which powered rotary brushes are carried by a support which is arranged to be attached to the guide rail or other fixed structure, the brushes being located on opposite sides of the guide rail so that, as the conveyor chain and wheeled trolleys pass between the rotating brushes they are cleaned of dirt including chemical residue, scale and rust.

In known powered-brush cleaner devices of the kind referred to the rotary brushes are driven continuously and are in constant engagement with the conveyor. Moreover, since the brushes are normally mounted at fixed positions relative to the conveyor guide rails the contact force between the brushes and the conveyor components will diminish progressively with time as the brushes wear.

An object of the present invention is to provide an improved powered-brush cleaner device with provision for sporadic or intermittent contact between the cleaning brushes and the conveyor components.

According to the invention in one aspect there is provided a powered-brush cleaner device for chain conveyors of the kind referred to, comprising a support arranged to be attached to the guide rail or other fixed structure and two powered rotary brushes carried by the support so as to be located on opposite sides of the guide rail in use of the device, the powered brushes being movable relative to the support under control of actuator means towards and away from the guide rail to bring the brushes respectively into and out of working engagement with the guide rail and the wheeled trolleys and chain of the conveyor.

Each rotary brush preferably comprises an array of bristles mounted on a cylindrical support rotatable about its longitudinal axis. The axes of rotation of the two brushes preferably lie in planes perpendicular to the axes of rotation of the trolley wheels, these planes usually being vertical. The brush-rotation axes may be perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the guide rail, but, in a preferred embodiment, are inclined at an angle close to 90" (more than about 80 ) to the guide rail. This arrangement enables the brushes to clean surfaces of the conveyor components parallel to the wheel axes as well as the usual surfaces perpendicular to these axes.

The actuator means for moving the brushes into and out of engagement with the guide rail may be pneumatic, mechanical, hydraulic or electrical and may be controlled by a timer which automatically and periodically operates the actuator means to bring the brushes into working engagement with the guide rail and subsequently to remove the brushes from working engagement with said rail.

The actuator means enable the contact between the rotary powered brushes and the conveyor components to be controlled at will, for example automatically under timer control as mentioned above, or semi-automatically or manually, in order to adjust the distance between the brushes and the conveyor components in order to maintain a substantially constant contact pressure between the brushes and the conveyor, compensating for brush wear. When the brushes are moved away from the guide rail into their inoperative positions the brushes can readily be replaced when worn, with greater ease than in installations where the positions of the cleaning brushes are fixed relative to the conveyor.

An automatic control may be provided for the brush drive means for periodically reversing the direction of rotation of the brushes.

This reduces the rate of wear of the brushes compared with that in devices in which the brush rotation remains unchanged. Such reversal also results in more efficient cleaning since the bristles of the brushes then penetrate the crevices of the trolley wheel brackets and chain and other conveyor components from both directions. Moreover, when the rotational axes of the brushes are inclined to the vertical, the reversal also enables the brushes to clean both upper and lower horizontal surfaces of the conveyor components.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention the two brushes are carried on respective radius arms pivoted on the support and the actuator means act upon the radius arms to move them angularly in order to engage the brushes with the conveyor and to disengage them therefrom. The pivot axes of the radius arms preferably lie in planes parallel to the planes containing the axes of rotation of the brushes; the pivot axes are, in practice, preferably parallel to these rotation axes.

The actuator means may conveniently comprise a single fluid-pressure actuator preferably of the double-acting type. Such an actuator may interconnect the radius arms directly, being pivotally attached at respective ends to the two arms such that extension of the actuator forces the two arms apart and contraction thereof draws the arms, and hence the brushes, together positively into working engagement with the conveyor. In a preferred embodiment, however, the radius arms are pivotally connected to a common block mounted, in use, on a guide for movement in the plane containing the longitudinal axis of the guide rail; the actuator is arranged to reciprocate the block along the guide.The guide may be parallel to the rail or inclined to it, particularly in cases in which the radius arm pivots and brush axes are parallel to each other and inclined at other than 90" to the guide rail.

Each rotary brush-may be driven by a respective electric motor carried by the associated radius arm and connected to the brush by an endless belt transmission.

Each brush may have an external profile which, at least partly, conforms to the profile, transverse the direction of advance of the conveyor, of the wheeled trolleys and chain of the conveyor.

Each rotary brush may be of "linear" construction", made up of planar sections of bristles attached to the cylindrical support and disposed in respective planes containing the axis of rotation of the cylinder.

Alternatively, each brush may be made up of spirally arranged or coiled rows of bristles.

The bristles of each brush may be of any suitable material, although a preferred material is nylon impregnated with silicon carbide; bristles made from this material have a controlled abrasive action and combine flexiblity with good shape retention. Such bristles afford better penetration of crevices than equivalent wire bristles which are prone to permanent deformation especially at their ends.

The entire device, including the drive motors, is preferably housed in a hood which encioses each side of the cleaner device on opposite sides of the conveyor guide rail, acting as a dust shroud.

The invention will be further described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying purely diagrammatic drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a schematic side-elevational view of part of a chain conveyor provided with a powered-brush cleaner device according to one embodiment of the invention; Figure 2 is a plan view of the device shown in Figure 1; Figure 3 is a transverse sectional view of the device, taken on line Ill-Ill in Figure 1; Figure 4 is a schematic perspective view illustrating the construction of one of the rotary brushes employed in the device of Figures 1 to 3; Figure 5 is a view similar to Figure 1 of a second embodiment of the invention; Figure 6 is a plan view of the device of Figure 5 in a non-operative condition; and Figure 7 is a view similar to Figure 6 of the device in an operative condition.

Reference is first made to Figures 1 to 4 of the drawings. The illustrated device is intended for the cleaning of a chain conveyor, in this example an overhead conveyor, having a number of wheeled trolleys 1 interconnected by a chain 2. The trolleys 1 are supported by pairs of trolley wheels 3 which run on a horizontal fixed guide rail 4 of the conveyor, the wheels 3 of each pair being disposed on opposite sides of a vertical web of the guide rail 4, as shown in Figure 3.

The moving components of the chain conveyor are cleaned by a powered-brush cleaner device according to the invention which includes a pair of contra-rotating brushes 5 mounted on opposite sides of the guide rail 4 and supported upon respective vertical shafts 6. It will be appreciated that, in general, the axis of rotation of each brush 5 is perpendicular to the direction of advance of the conveyor and perpendicular to the axis of rotation of -each pair of trolley wheels 3.

Each vertical brush shaft 6 is rotatably mounted at one end of a respective radius arm 7 the other end of which is pivotally connected to a fixed support 8 mounted upon the guide rail 4. The radius arms 7 are interconnected by a double-acting pneumatic actuator 9 which controls the angle of inclination of each radius arm 7 to the longitudinal axis of the fixed guide rail 4.

Each rotary brush shaft 6 is driven by a respective electric motor 10, in this example a 0.5 horse power electric motor, mounted on the respective radius arm 7 and connected to the respective brush shaft by an endless-belt transmission 11 coupled to a respective drive pulley 12 keyed to the upper end of the respective brush shaft 6 coaxially therewith.

Each brush 5 is conveniently formed of a number of planar bristle sections 13 (Figure 4) anchored to a cylinder 14 which is mounted on the brush drive shaft 6. Each bristle section 13 may be individually removable from the cylinder 14 for replacement when worn.

The length of the bristles in each bristle section 13 may vary along the length of the cylinder 14 so that the brush 5 has an external profile which conforms to that of the transverse section of the conveyor chain 2 and the wheeled carriages 1, as shown in Figure 3. The planar bristle sections 13 are releasably clipped onto the cylinder 14 so that they can be easily removed for replacement.

In operation of the cleaner device the electric motors 10 drive the two rotary brushes 5 in counter-rotation and pressure is supplied to the actuator 9 through a pressure regulator (not shown) to control the pressure exerted by the brushes 5 on the chain conveyor components. The actuator supply pressure may be varied with time in order to compensate for the progressive wear of the brushes 5.

The pneumatic actuator 9 may be connected in a pneumatic control circuit including a timer and solenoid valve which causes the actuator 9 to operate at predetermined intervals so as to swing the two radius arms 7 towards each other and bring the brushes 5 into working engagement with the opposite sides of the chain conveyor with a predetermined cleaning pressure, the cleaning action being maintained for a specific time interval before the actuator 9 reverses and pushes the arms 7 apart to remove the brushes 5 from engagement with the conveyor. In this way the device is arranged to exert a cleaning action on the conveyor at intervals, the interval between successive working periods of the device being controlled according to the rate of accumulation of dirt on the conveyor.

In most practical installations the entire cleaner device will be encased in a hood 16, shown in broken outline in the drawings, which covers the motors 10 and the two brushes 5, on the opposite lateral sides of the conveyor guide rail 4, the hood 16 extending downwardly below the brushes 5 and acting as a dust shroud. Additional flexible skirts may be fitted to the hood to provide further dust protection.

With reference now to Figures 5 to 7 of the drawings, a second embodiment of a powered-brush cleaner is shown in which features similar to those of the cleaner of Figures 1 to 4 are indicated by the same reference numerals. The cleaner of Figures 5 to 7 differs from that of Figures 1 to 4 in two main aspects and only these will be described in detail.

Firstly, with reference Figure 5 it is seen that the shafts 6a of the brushes 5 are not vertical but inclined at a small angle to the vertical although the rotational axes of the shafts 6a still lie in vertical planes parallel to the longitudinal axis of the conveyor. The angle is in this case 5".

The drive motor 10 for each brush 5 is also mounted at the angle a of 5 to the vertical, the belt transmission 11 extending at 5 to the horizontal to ensure that drive is transmitted properly to the brushes 5, in use.

This arrangement of the brushes 5 enables their bristles to bear downwards slightly on the components of the chain conveyor, particularly the chain itself, during cleaning in one direction of rotation of the brushes and to bear upwards slightly in the opposite direction of rotation. This provides the great advantage that both upper and lower surfaces of the chain and other components are cleaned in use, in addition to the side surfaces.

The second difference between this embodiment and that of Figures 1 to 4 lies in the fact that the radius arms 7 are not interconnected directly by a pneumatic cylinder but are each connected by a respective link rod 20 to a central block 21, each link rod 20 being pivotally connected at one end to the block 21 and at the other end to the respective radius arm 7,the pivot axes of the radius arms 7 and the link arms 20 being parallel to the axes of rotation of the brushes 5.

The block 21 is slidably mounted on a guide rod 22 the longitudinal axis whereof extends at the angle of 5 to the horizontal and in a plane containing the longitudinal axis of the guide rail 4. The block 21 is acted upon by a double-acting pneumatic cylinder 9a fixed relative to the guide rod 22 and serving the same purpose as the pneumatic cylinder 9 of the embodiment described above.

In use of the cleaner of Figures 5 to 7, the central block 21 is reciprocable along the guide rod 22 by means of the cylinder 9a between the position shown in Figure 6, in which the link rods 10 are aligned with each other and the brushes 5 are spaced from the chain conveyor, and the position shown in Figure 7, in which the link rods 10 are inclined to each other so that the brushes 5 are drawn closer together and into contact with the chain conveyor to effect cleaning.

This embodiment has the advantage that the link rods 10 transmit positive movement equally to both radius arms 7, both when drawing them towards the conveyor and when moving them apart, so that the brushes 5 exert substantially-equal cleaning forces on the conveyor from both sides. In the first embodiment, in which the radius arms are interconnected directly by the pneumatic cylinder, there is a tendency for gyroscopic forces generated by the brushes to cause one brush to press harder against the conveyor members than the other.

Claims (13)

1. A powered-brush cleaner device for chain conveyors of the kind having wheeled trolleys interconnected by a chain and movable along a guide rail, comprising a support arranged to be attached to the guide rail or other fixed structure and two powered rotary brushes carried by the support so as to be located on opposite sides of the guide rail in use of the device, the powered brushes being movable relative to the support under the control of actuator means towards and away from the guide rail to bring the brushes respectively into and out of working engagement with the guide rail and the wheeled trolleys and chain of the conveyor.

2. A cleaner device as claimed in Claim 1, in which the axes of rotation of the brushes lie in planes perpendicular to the rotational axes of the trolley wheels, and are inclined at an angle of from about 80" to 90" to the longitudinal axis of the guide rail.

3. A cleaner device as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 2, in which the actuator means are controlled by a timer which automatically and periodically operates the actuator means to bring the brushes into working engagement with the guide rail and subsequently to remove the brushes from working engagement with said rail.

4. A cleaner device as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 3, including an automatic control for the brush drive means for periodically reversing the direction of rotation of the brushes.

5. A cleaner device according to any one of the preceding claims, in which the two brushes are carried on respective radius arms pivoted on the support and the actuator means act upon the radius arms to move them angularly towards or away from each other in order respectively to engage or disengage the brushes.

6. A cleaner device as claimed in Claim 5, in which the pivot axes of the radius arms lie in planes perpendicular to the rotational axes of the trolley wheels and are inclined at an angle of from 80" to 90" inclusive to the longitudinal axis of the guide rail.

7. A cleaner device as claimed in Claim 6, in which the actuator means comprise a double-acting fluid pressure actuator.

8. A cleaner device as claimed in Claim 7, in which the radius arms are pivotally connected to a common block mounted on a guide for movement in the plane containing the longitudinal axis of the guide rail, the actuator being arranged to reciprocate the block along the guide to cause the said angular movement of the radius arms.

9. A cleaner device as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 8, in which each rotary brush is driven by a respective electric motor carried by the associated radius arm and connected to the brush by an endless belt transmission.

10. A cleaner device as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, in which each brush has an external profile which at least partly conforms to the profile, transverse the direction of advance of the conveyor, of the wheeled trolleys and chain of the conveyor.

11. A cleaner device as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, in which each brush is made up of planar sections of bristles attached to a cylinder and disposed in respective planes containing the axis of rotation of the cylinder.

12. A cleaner device as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, in which the bristles comprise nylon impregnated with silicon carbide.

13. A powered-brush cleaner device substantially as herein described, with reference to, and as shown in, the accompanying drawings.