The present invention relates to article processing systems and, more particularly, to a conveyor system for moving an article along a conveying path to successive processing stations.
Article processing systems commonly employ an elevator/conveyor system that moves articles to be treated or processed to work stations positioned along a conveyor path. An elevator mechanism is utilized to raise and lower the articles to and from selected work stations, e.g., processing tanks, along the path. In this manner, the articles are successively moved from a loading/unloading station to and through a succession of work stations and returned to the loading/unloading station. These conventional processing systems are well suited for processing a plurality of articles according to a predetermined procedure. However, such conventional processing systems are often expensive to produce and costly to operate and maintain because of the relative complexity of their design.
Another type of system employs a continuous conveyor with fixed successive declined and inclined sections for immersing an object in a processing tank and subsequently removing the object from the tank. The degree of decline and incline necessitates relatively large volume processing tanks and extended conveying paths. Further, the time between processing steps tends to be excessive in some cases.
Accordingly, there is a need for a conveyor system that enables efficient mass production processing and minimizes the costs associated with design, manufacture, operation, and maintenance of the conveyor system.