BACKGROUND

The invention relates generally to power-driven conveyors and more particularly to spiral conveyors in which a conveyor belt is positively driven in a helical path around a rotating drive tower.

Conveyor belts are often used to convey articles, such as food stuffs and other materials, through cooled or heated environments. Spiral conveyors, in which a conveyor belt follows a helical path winding around a central tower, drum, or cage, are used in freezers and ovens to provide a long conveying path with a small footprint.

Some helical conveyors are constructed with a helical track supported on a central non-rotating tower. The conveyor belt is driven around the helical track by drive sprockets at a single location outside the helical path. The maximum tension in the belt, which occurs just ahead of its engagement with the drive sprockets, can be quite high for such a long belt. To reduce the maximum belt tension, overdrive spiral conveyor systems are used. In these overdrive systems, the conveyor belt is driven by frictional contact between the inside edge of the belt and the faster-rotating outer surface of the rotating drum about which the belt is helically wrapped. Because the belt is driven along the entire helical path, the maximum belt tension is decreased. But some tension is still needed for effective frictional engagement between the drum and the belt edge. Furthermore, the frictional engagement causes wear in the belt edge and the outer drum surfaces. Because a large portion of the rotational energy required to drive the drum is lost to friction, the motor and power requirements can be quite high. And, because overdrive systems are sensitive to friction between the outside of the drum and the inside edge of the belt, the proper settings of tension and overdrive vary from installation to installation.

Positively driven spiral systems, in which drive structure on the outside of a rotating cage engages structure on the inside of a conveyor belt, have been used to overcome some of the shortcomings of overdrive systems. Because there is positive engagement between regularly spaced drive structure on the cage and regularly spaced edge structure on the inside edge of the belt, there is no slip as in overdrive systems. No additional tensioning is needed, and frictional losses are less. But one problem with positively driven spiral systems is in cleanly engaging the belt with and disengaging it from the drive structure on the cage.

SUMMARY

One version of a spiral conveyor embodying features of the invention comprises a drive tower that is rotatable about a vertical axis and that extends from a bottom to a top with a belt entrance portion of the drive tower at or near the bottom for an upgoing spiral or at or near the top for a downgoing spiral. The drive tower has parallel ridges that project radially outward and extend in length between the bottom and the top of the drive tower at its periphery. The parallel ridges taper outwardly away from the vertical axis toward the bottom for an upgoing spiral or toward the top for a downgoing spiral in at least a portion of the belt entrance portion. A conveyor belt is positively driven without slip in a helical path around the drive tower by the parallel ridges engaging an inside edge of the conveyor belt.

Another version of a spiral conveyor comprises a drive tower that is rotatable about a vertical axis and has an outer periphery that extends from a bottom to a top. A belt entrance is at or near the bottom for an upgoing spiral or at or near the top for a downgoing spiral. Parallel outwardly projecting ridges on the drive tower extend in length from top ends to bottom ends at the periphery of the drive tower between the top and the bottom. A first portion of the ridges is a constant first distance from the vertical axis, and a second portion of the ridges closer to the belt entrance tapers radially outwardly away from the vertical axis toward the belt entrance to a greater second distance. A conveyor belt advances up or down in a conveying direction along a helical conveying path around the outer periphery of the rotating cylindrical drive tower. The conveyor belt includes a plurality of rows of belt modules having a top side and a bottom side and hingedly linked together between consecutive rows along hinge joints defining hinge axes extending perpendicular to the conveying direction from a first side edge of the rows to an opposite second side edge of the rows. The hinge joints have play in the conveying direction to allow the rows to collapse together at the first side edge when the first side edge is at the inside of the helical conveying path. The first side edge of at least some of the rows includes a tooth that extends outwardly to a distal end and has a non-rotatable guide surface parallel to one of the hinge axes of the row. The guide surface is oriented to guide the bottom ends of the ridges in an upgoing spiral or the top ends of the ridges in a downgoing spiral into driving contact with the tooth to drive the conveyor belt in the conveying direction along the helical conveying path without slip.

According to another aspect, a conveyor belt embodying features of the invention comprises a series of rows of belt modules having a top side and a bottom side and hingedly linked together between consecutive rows along hinge joints defining hinge axes extending perpendicular to a conveying direction from a first side edge of the rows to an opposite second side edge of the rows. The hinge joints have play in the conveying direction to allow the rows to collapse together at the first side edge when the first side edge is at the inside of a turn in a conveying path. The first side edge of at least some of the rows includes a tooth that projects radially outward to a distal end and has a non-rotatable guide surface parallel to one of the hinge axes of the row. The guide surface is oriented to guide a top or bottom end of an external drive member into driving contact with the tooth to drive the conveyor belt in the conveying direction without slip.

