Appeal No. 1999-1524 Page 6
Application No. 08/938,051
Independent claim 15 reads as follows:
An endless accumulating conveyor comprising
laterally spaced apart endless multi-strand conveyor
chains having upper and lower runs connected adjacent the
ends of the conveyor by curved sections with return bends
thereof, laterally spaced coaxial conveyor sprockets at
each end of the conveyor for supporting the curved
sections of the chains, a plurality of pallet trains each
for carrying a workpiece and each having at least a
leading first pallet and a trailing last pallet, a first
workpiece support on the first pallet, a second workpiece
support on the last pallet and the first and second
supports together carrying the same workpiece on one
train of pallets with the workpiece having a length
greater than the length of any one pallet, each pallet
being slidably supported on the chains and adapted to be
frictionally transported over the upper and lower runs,
propelling mechanism for positively engaging and
positively advancing without slippage therebetween the
pallets one at a time over the curved sections in a an
arcuate path from one run to the other, a clasp carried
by the first pallet of each pallet train, a catch
releasably engagable with a clasp and carried by the last
pallet of each train, each clasp being constructed so
that it engages with the catch carried by an immediately
succeeding pallet to couple the pallets together as their
associated train is advanced along at least one of the
runs for carrying a workpiece, and each clasp and catch
is constructed so that as each pallet having a clasp is
initially advanced by the propelling mechanism around one
of the curved sections it disengages from the catch of
the immediately succeeding pallet and as each pallet is
advanced in an arcuate path around a curved section it is
disconnected from all other pallets and is the only
pallet being moved by its associated propelling mechanism
around the curved section.
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Last modified: November 3, 2007