JP7701690B2 - Mesh belt - Google Patents

Description

This invention relates to a mesh belt made by weaving metal wires together into a wire mesh shape, and in particular to a mesh belt made by connecting two types of spiral members with different winding directions in an alternating arrangement.

Conventionally, belt conveyors used in processes requiring heat resistance and corrosion resistance, such as transporting workpieces in the hardening process of metal products and transporting ingredients in the steaming and cleaning processes of processed foods, have used mesh belts in which spiral members made of metal wires are connected with ribs made of metal wires shaped like wavy rods and woven together into a wire mesh (see Patent Documents 1 and 2).

Such mesh belts have the problem that, due to their high rigidity, they can scratch workpieces that fall onto them, and they can restrict the extension of the chain that drives the belt conveyor, causing damage to the connecting members that connect the chain and belt.

Patent Document 1 discloses a mesh belt in which two wavy rod-shaped strength bones are stacked and welded at a predetermined interval in the longitudinal direction, and a spring member is provided between the welded parts so that the two strength bones spread out like bamboo leaves, and a normal strength bone made of a single wavy rod-shaped member is alternately provided. The mesh belt of Patent Document 1 expands the mesh belt in the conveying direction by contracting the width of the bamboo leaf-shaped spreading part of the spring member, preventing damage to workpieces falling onto the mesh belt. Incidentally, the spring member of Patent Document 1 is configured so that the spiral of the spiral member is engaged with the wavy part of the wavy rod-shaped strength bone that constitutes it.

Patent Document 2 discloses a chain-driven mesh belt in which two non-wavy straight wire rods are stacked together and welded at a predetermined interval, similar to the spring member in Patent Document 1, with the two wire rods spreading out like bamboo leaves between the welds. The mesh belt in Patent Document 2 is made stretchable, so that it stretches in line with the extension of the chain when it is driven, preventing damage to the support parts connecting the chain and mesh belt.

Patent No. 6778935 Patent No. 6775267

However, in the mesh belts of Patent Documents 1 and 2, the strength ribs are made of two wire rods, so there is a problem that they cannot be used when it is desired to narrow the pitch of the helical member.
The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and has an object to provide a mesh belt equipped with a spring member that can be used even when the pitch of the helical member is small.

The invention made to solve the above-mentioned problems is a mesh belt made of metal wires woven together in a wire mesh pattern, and is characterized in that it comprises two types of helical members with different winding directions extending in the width direction of the mesh belt and arranged in parallel and alternating rows in a longitudinal direction perpendicular to the width direction, a wavy rod-shaped force rib that is inserted through both of the two adjacent types of helical members and connects the two types of helical members while preventing misalignment in the width direction by alternately engaging the loops of the two types of helical members with a wave, and a wavy spring member that has a wave pitch larger than the pitch of the loops of the two types of helical members and is inserted through both of the two adjacent types of helical members to bias the two adjacent types of helical members in a direction that increases the distance between the axes of the two types of helical members.

In this way, the mesh belt of the present invention has a spring member made of a single wavy wire member, so the pitch (axial distance) between two adjacent spiral members can be made smaller than when a spring member made of two welded wires is used, as in the mesh belts of Patent Documents 1 and 2.

It is preferable that the spring member is welded to the helical member only at one end in the width direction of the mesh belt.
If both ends of the spring member are not welded and the spring member is free to the helical member, there is a risk that the spring member will shift in position in the width direction of the mesh belt as the mesh belt repeatedly expands and contracts. Also, if both ends of the spring member are fixed to the helical member by welding, there is a risk that the spring member will be restricted and will not be able to elastically deform. In contrast, by welding the spring member to the helical member at only one end, it is possible to prevent the spring member from shifting in position relative to the mesh belt without restricting the elastic deformation of the spring member.

It is preferable that a plurality of the spring members are provided in the longitudinal direction of the mesh belt, and that the ends of the plurality of spring members that are welded to the spiral member are alternately arranged on one end side and the other end side in the width direction of the mesh belt. In this way, the mesh belt can be configured to expand and contract uniformly.

As explained above, the mesh belt of the present invention allows the pitch of the spiral member to be reduced.

1A and 1B are a side view and a plan view, respectively, of a mesh belt according to one embodiment of the present invention. 2A is a side view and FIG. 2B is a plan view of the mesh belt shown in FIG. 1 in a state where one end in the width direction is stretched. FIG. 2A is a plan view of a right-handed spiral member, FIG. 2B is a left-handed spiral member, FIG. 2C is a spring member, and FIG. 2D is a plan view of a force rib shown in FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a main portion showing how two types of helical members are engaged with the force bone shown in FIG. 1 . FIG.

Below, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the appropriate drawings. However, the present invention is not limited to the following embodiment.

Figure 1 shows a mesh belt 100 according to a first embodiment of the present invention. As shown in Figure 1, the mesh belt 100 is constructed by connecting a large number of two types of helical members with different helical directions (a right-handed helical member 11 and a left-handed helical member 12; hereinafter, the "right-handed helical member" and the "left-handed helical member" are also collectively referred to as "helical members"), a spring member 2, and a force rib 3. The two types of helical members 11 and 12, the spring member 2, and the force rib 3 are all formed from metal wire.

The metal wires forming each component of the mesh belt 100 are not particularly limited as long as they have appropriate elastic strength, but stainless steel wires such as SUS304 and SUS316, and galvanized steel wires are preferably used.

As shown in FIG. 1(b), the right-handed spiral member 11 and the left-handed spiral member 12 are arranged in parallel and alternately in the longitudinal direction of the mesh belt 100 (the left-right direction in FIG. 1(b)). The right-handed spiral member 11 is wound so as to extend in a right-handed spiral from one end side of the mesh belt 100 to the other end side when viewed from one end side of the width direction of the mesh belt 100 (the front side of the paper in FIG. 1(a) or the upper side of FIG. 1(b)), and the left-handed spiral member 12 is wound so as to extend in a left-handed spiral from the one end side to the other end side. The right-handed spiral member 11 and the left-handed spiral member 12 overlap in the longitudinal direction of the mesh belt 100 by inserting the spiral rings 12a, 11a, which are one turn of the spiral, into the gaps between the spiral rings 11a, 12a of the other, and the spring member 2 and the reinforcing member 3 are inserted through the overlapping portion to connect them. As shown in Figures 3(a) and (b), the right-handed spiral member 11 and the left-handed spiral member 12 have the same pitch P1 of the spiral rings 11a and 12a.

As shown in Fig. 1(b) and Fig. 3(c), the spring member 2 is formed in a wavy shape with multiple continuous waves 2a from a metal wire, and as shown in Fig. 1, it is inserted through both of the two adjacent types of helical members 11, 12, connecting the two adjacent types of helical members 11, 12.

The pitch P2 of the waves 2a of the spring member 2 is set to be larger than the pitch P1 of the spiral loops 11a, 12a of the helical members 11, 12. If the pitch P2 of the spring member 2 is smaller than the pitch P1 of the helical members 11, 12, the waves 2a of the spring member 2 may get between the loops 11a, 12a of the helical members 11, 12, and there is a risk that deformation that reduces the wave height of the waves 2a, which are the source of the elastic force of the spring member 2, will not occur.

In addition, if the pitch P1 of the spiral rings 11a, 12a of the spiral members 11, 12 is the same as the pitch P2 of the spring member 2, the spring member 2 will simply be a member that connects the two adjacent spiral members 11, 12, just like the reinforcing rod 3 described below.

By making the pitch P2 larger than the pitch P1, the waves 2a of the spring member 2 are prevented from entering between the rings 11a, 12a of the helical members 11, 12, and the spring member 2 can be inserted into the helical members 11 and 12 while the helical members 11 and 12 are spaced apart. When the axial distance between the helical members 11 and 12 is shortened, the waves 2a are pushed by the rings of the helical members 11, 12, causing a deformation that reduces the wave height of the waves 2a, and thus an elastic force can be formed in the spring member 2. The pitch P2 is preferably at least twice the pitch P1, more preferably at least three times, even more preferably at least four times, and particularly preferably at least five times.

In the example of FIG. 1(a), the spring member 2 has only one of its two ends 2b, 2b welded. In the figure, the reference symbol 2bw indicates the end on the welded side. However, the spring member 2 may have both ends 2b, 2b welded to the ends of the right-handed spiral member 11 or the left-handed spiral member 12, or neither end may be welded, or only one of the ends may be welded to the right-handed spiral member 11 or the left-handed spiral member 12.

However, the spring member 2 stretches in the length direction (width direction of the mesh belt 100) when it is deformed to reduce the wave height. If both ends are fixed by welding, the stretching is restricted, and there is a risk that deformation to reduce the wave height will not occur.

In addition, if both ends of the spring member 2 are not welded and are free, there is a risk that the spring member 2 will shift in position in the width direction of the mesh belt 100 as the mesh belt 100 repeatedly expands and contracts.

In contrast, by welding only one end of the spring member 2 to the end of the right-handed spiral member 11 or the left-handed spiral member 12, the spring member 2 can undergo elastic deformation to reduce the wave height without being restricted in its elongation or causing misalignment, effectively generating an elastic force, making the mesh belt 100 stretchable and providing cushioning properties to the mesh belt 100.

When multiple spring members 2 are arranged in parallel, it is preferable to weld at least some of the spring members 2 to the right-handed spiral member 11 or the left-handed spiral member 12 at the end 2b on the side different from the other spring members 2. It is more preferable to change the end 2bw to which a certain number of spring members 2 are welded between one end side and the other end side in the width direction of the mesh belt 100, and it is even more preferable to change the end 2bw to which each spring is welded alternately, as shown in Figure 1 (b). This allows the mesh belt 100 to expand and contract uniformly.

As shown in FIG. 3(d), the reinforcing rod 3 is made of a metal wire and has multiple waves 3a and 3b arranged alternately in the length direction (width direction of the mesh belt 100). As shown in FIG. 4, the waves 3a engage the loop 11a of the right helical member 11, and the waves 3b engage the loop 12a of the left helical member 12, connecting the adjacent helical members 11 and 12 while preventing the adjacent helical members 11 and 12 from shifting in the width direction.

The force bone 3 is fixed by welding at both ends to either the right-handed spiral member 11 or the left-handed spiral member 12, but is not fixed to the other end of the right-handed spiral member 11 or the left-handed spiral member 12, so it can move freely within the right-handed spiral member 11 or the left-handed spiral member 12. As the force bone 3 moves freely, the axial distance between the adjacent right-handed spiral member 11 and left-handed spiral member 12 increases or decreases.

The example in FIG. 1 shows an example in which the minimum unit is a unit in which a force rib 3, a right spiral member 11, a spring member 2, a left spiral member 12, a force rib 3, a right spiral member 11, a force rib 3, and a left spiral member 12 are arranged in order in one longitudinal direction of the mesh belt 100 (to the right in FIG. 1). In other words, the mesh belt 100 in FIG. 1 has a configuration in which two types of spiral members 11, 12 are connected by a spring member 2 between two adjacent force ribs 3, 3, and a configuration in which only a right spiral member 11 is sandwiched between two adjacent force ribs 3, 3, which are repeated alternately in the longitudinal direction. However, a configuration in which a spring member 2 is sandwiched between all force ribs 3, 3 may be used, and there may be more configurations in which a spring member 2 is not sandwiched between force ribs 3, 3 than in the example in FIG. 1.

The mesh belt of the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment, and may be, for example, one in which some of the spring members 2 are replaced with spring members formed by welding two wire rods as shown in Patent Document 2. It goes without saying that the mesh belt of the present invention may be used for purposes other than belt conveyors.

100 Mesh belt 11, 12 Spiral member 2 Spring member 3 Strength bones 3a, 3b Wave

Claims (3)

A mesh belt made by weaving metal wires into a wire mesh shape,
Two types of helical members having different winding directions extending in the width direction of the mesh belt and arranged in parallel and alternately in a longitudinal direction perpendicular to the width direction;
a wavy rod-like strength rib that is inserted through both of two adjacent types of helical members and alternately engages the loops of the two types of helical members with waves to connect the two adjacent types of helical members while preventing the two adjacent types of helical members from shifting in the width direction;
a wavy spring member having a wave pitch larger than the loop pitch of the two types of helical members, the wavy spring member being inserted through both of the two adjacent types of helical members and biasing the two adjacent types of helical members in a direction in which the axis-to-axis distance between the two types of helical members increases. The mesh belt according to claim 1 , wherein the spring member is welded to the helical member at only one end in the width direction of the mesh belt. The spring members are provided in a plurality of positions in the longitudinal direction of the mesh belt, and the plurality of spring members are
The mesh belt according to claim 2 , wherein the ends welded to the helical member are alternately arranged between one end side and the other end side in the width direction of the mesh belt.

Images