Scraper blade for conveyor belts

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9242805-B2
Application number	US-201414229800-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 28, 2014
Priority date	Mar 28, 2014
Publication date	Jan 26, 2016
Grant date	Jan 26, 2016

Abstract

In one aspect, a scraper blade for a conveyor belt is disclosed that provides improved strength and durability of a connection between a resilient blade body and an insert molded in situ with the blade body. The blade body has an upper portion with a scraping tip and a lower portion with a pair of laterally spaced depending leg portions. The insert has a pair of laterally spaced side wall portions with variable wall thicknesses and laterally outwardly facing sides that extend along laterally inwardly facing sides of the blade body leg portions. Each insert side wall portion and the blade body lower portion include a plurality of recesses having an undercut configuration and a plurality of projections extending laterally and filling the corresponding recesses in which the projections are received to keep the blade body and the insert connected together under loading during conveyor belt operations.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A scraper blade for a conveyor belt, the scraper blade comprising:
a molded blade body of resilient material;
an upper portion of the blade body including a scraping tip end thereof for engaging the conveyor belt;
a lower portion of the blade body having a pair of laterally spaced depending leg portions;
an insert molded in situ with the blade body;
a pair of laterally spaced side wall portions of the insert having variable wall thicknesses and laterally outward facing sides that extend along corresponding inwardly facing sides of the blade body depending leg portions;
a slot of the insert between the insert laterally spaced side wall portions;
a plurality of recesses in each of the insert side wall portions that have an undercut configuration, each of the recesses having opposing curved surface portions above and below one another along the respective insert side wall portions; and
a plurality of projections of the blade body lower portion at the laterally inward facing sides that extend laterally inward and fill the corresponding recesses in which the projections are received to keep the blade body and insert connected together under loading during conveyor belt operations.

2. The scraper blade of claim 1 wherein the insert includes offset lower foot portions extending in opposite lateral directions from the respective spaced side wall portions.

3. The scraper blade of claim 1 wherein the insert has a lower end portion with laterally outward facing sides and the depending leg portions of the blade body extend along and cover the laterally outward facing sides of the insert lower end portion.

4. The scraper blade of claim 1 wherein, in profile, the plurality of recesses having the undercut configuration have substantially the same size and shape.

5. The scraper blade of claim 1 wherein the plurality of recesses of the insert side wall portions are free of sharp edges and sharp corners.

6. The scraper blade of claim 1 wherein the insert is made of a metallic material.

7. The scraper blade of claim 1 wherein the slot of the insert is a mounting slot.

8. A scraper blade for a conveyor belt, the scraper blade comprising:
a molded blade body of resilient material;
an upper portion of the blade body including a scraping tip end thereof for engaging the conveyor belt;
a lower portion of the blade body having a pair of laterally spaced depending leg portions;
an insert molded in situ with the blade body;
a pair of laterally spaced side wall portions of the insert having variable wall thicknesses and laterally outward facing sides that extend along corresponding inwardly facing sides of the blade body depending leg portions;
a slot of the insert between the insert laterally spaced side wall portions;
a plurality of recesses in each of the insert side wall portions that have an undercut configuration; and
a plurality of projections of the blade body lower portion at the laterally inward facing sides that extend laterally inward and fill the corresponding recesses in which the projections are received to keep the blade body and insert connected together under loading during conveyor belt operations,
wherein the plurality of recesses include neckdown regions that face laterally outward and the projections have narrow neck portions that extend laterally inward in the neckdown regions; and
the recesses have enlarged recessed regions and the projections have corresponding enlarged lateral end portions in the enlarged recessed regions.

9. The scraper blade of claim 8 wherein the side wall portions extend vertically generally orthogonal to the laterally extending projection neck portions.

10. The scraper blade of claim 8 wherein the plurality of neckdown regions are generally vertically aligned along each of the insert side wall portions.

11. A scraper blade for a conveyor belt, the scraper blade comprising:
a molded blade body of resilient material;
an upper portion of the blade body including a scraping tip end thereof for engaging the conveyor belt;
a lower portion of the blade body having a pair of laterally spaced depending leg portions;
an insert molded in situ with the blade body;
a pair of laterally spaced side wall portions of the insert having variable wall thicknesses and laterally outward facing sides that extend along corresponding inwardly facing sides of the blade body depending leg portions;
a slot of the insert between the insert laterally spaced side wall portions;
a plurality of recesses in each of the insert side wall portions that have an undercut configuration; and
a plurality of projections of the blade body lower portion at the laterally inward facing sides that extend laterally inward and fill the corresponding recesses in which the projections are received to keep the blade body and insert connected together under loading during conveyor belt operations,
wherein the insert includes offset lower foot portions extending in opposite lateral directions from the respective spaced side wall portions, and the offset lower foot portions each include at least one recess having an undercut configuration and a projection extending laterally inward into and filling the recess.

12. A scraper blade for a conveyor belt, the scraper blade comprising:
a molded blade body of resilient material;
an upper portion of the blade body including a scraping tip end thereof for engaging the conveyor belt;
a lower portion of the blade body having a pair of laterally spaced depending leg portions;
an insert molded in situ with the blade body;
a pair of laterally spaced side wall portions of the insert having variable wall thicknesses and laterally outward facing sides that extend along corresponding inwardly facing sides of the blade body depending leg portions;
a slot of the insert between the insert laterally spaced side wall portions;
a plurality of recesses in each of the insert side wall portions that have an undercut configuration; and
a plurality of projections of the blade body lower portion at the laterally inward facing sides that extend laterally inward and fill the corresponding recesses in which the projections are received to keep the blade body and insert connected together under loading during conveyor belt operations,
wherein the plurality of recesses in one of the insert side wall portions includes a pair of adjacent recesses having neckdown regions thereof; and
a divider portion of the one insert side wall portion having a tongue portion disposed between the pair of recesses and having a pair of lip portions that each extend transverse to the tongue portion oppositely each other to form neckdown regions of the pair of recesses.

13. A scraper blade for a conveyor belt, the scraper blade comprising:
a molded blade body of resilient material;
an upper portion of the blade body including a scraping tip end thereof for engaging the conveyor belt;
a lower portion of the blade body having a pair of laterally spaced depending leg portions;
an insert molded in situ with the blade body;
a pair of laterally spaced side wall portions of the insert having variable wall thicknesses and laterally outward facing sides that extend along corresponding inwardly facing sides of the blade body depending leg portions;
a slot of the insert between the insert laterally spaced side wall portions;
a plurality of recesses in each of the insert side wall portions that have an undercut configuration; and
a plurality of projections of the blade body lower portion at the laterally inward facing sides that extend laterally inward and fill the corresponding recesses in which the projections are receive

Assignees

• Flexible Steel Lacing Co

Inventors

• Devries Brett E

Classifications

• B65G45/14 Primary

  Moving scrapers · CPC title

• B65G45/12 Primary

  comprising scrapers · CPC title