The present invention relates to a conveyor chain of the bottle conveyor type and futrher of the type as made of chain links of metal, preferably stainless sheet steel, the chain links being hinged together by means of trans- 5 verse hinge pins through hinge parts consisting of rolled up strip portions protruding from the respective front and rear edges of the single links in such a man¬ ner that the links of each pair of interhinged chain links are mutually pivotal not only about the normally 10 horizontal hinge pin, but also about a vertical axis through the middle point of the hinge joint, such that the chain is guidable through curves in the horizontal plane. For enabling this, the single chain links are shap¬ ed with upper link plate portions, which are transverse- 15 ly outwardly converging to thereby enable the link plates, when passing through horizontal curves, to pivot laterally as required without having to overlap each other, this being desirable because the upper car¬ rier surfaces should preferably be located in a common 20 horizontal plane. On the other hand it has to be accept¬ ed, then, that open triangular areas will be present along the side edges of the chain. These areas, of cour¬ se, should not be open more than corresponding to the areas being completely closed when the chain passes 25 through horizontal curves with the maximum curvature of * ^' the conveyor system, and in practice such maximum cur- vature has traditionally been a curvature corresponding to a curvature radius of about 45 cm.

It would be generally acceptable that the said triangu- 30 lar areas were still larger, i.e. corresponding to a chain movement through curves of still higher curvature,

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but the hinge connections set up certain limits for the mutual pivotability of the chain links. An increased pivotability of the chain links has been a long standing desire of both manufacturers and users of these chains, because an increased pivotability will allow for the use of curves of increased curvature in the conveyor system, and in practice the important consequence would be that in stead of using curved guiding rails for supporting the chain through a given curve it would be possible to use a lying sprocket wheel, which would offer a con¬ siderably reduced conveying friction as compared to stationary, curved guiding rails. These considerations are well known, inasfar as with other types of conveyor chains, viz. chains consisting of chain links of plastic, it has been possible to provide for a pivotability of the chain links which is high enough to make chains of that type guidable through horizontal curves having a radius of curvature of some 20-25 cm, whereby it is a paractical possibility to replace a stationary, curved guiding or sliding rail by a lying sprocket wheel of reasonable dimensions.

However, as far as plastic chain links are concerned, the special possibility exists that the hinge parts are easily provided with an interior conical or double conical shape, which favours a high lateral pivotabili¬ ty. it has been endeavoured to obtain a similar effect in connection with chain links of sheet metal, viz. by die pressing the hinge parts, but the desired result has not been obtained, and besides, such an extra opera- tion would be highly undesirable and costly in the mass production as here considered.

Just because the metal chain links are produced by mass production these links have been subjected to a minute

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development and optimizing work, e.g. with respect to the dimensioning of the hinge parts on the background of these parts optimally being constituted by rolled up projecting strip portions of a workpiece produced by punching, i.e. whereby these rolled up or cylindrical hinge part forming strip portions show the same material thickness as the remainder of the workpiece, while their diameter and axial length are determined mainly by re¬ quirements as to power transmission partly mutually between the chain links and partly between the single chain links and the driving sprockets as used in a gi¬ ven conveyor system for moving the chain. It is to be noticed that the relevant development has so far stop¬ ped at such a design of the links, whereby the rolled up cylindrical hinge parts show such length to width ratios and cooperate with hinge pins of such dimentions that the desired increased degree of pivotability has not been practically achievable.

The invention is based on the recognition that the hinge parts as conventionally designed show certain area por¬ tions which are in fact superfluous from a strength point of view, and which, in being removed, will provide for an increased lateral pivotability. These area por¬ tions are the laterally outermost rear portions of the central, cylindrical hinge part. The front side portion of this part serves to transfer the chain pull to or from the hinge pin, while the opposed rear portion there¬ of almost only serves to prevent the link from getting loose from the hinge, inasfar as the hinge needs not being able to resist considerable forces tending to push together the chain links.

On this background it has been found that a considerab¬ ly increased lateral pivotability is achievable when

the said outer rear side portions of the central hinge part are removed, while for the stability of the hinge it is sufficient that the remaining rear side portion is but a narrow central portion, which as a half-ring engages behind the hinge pin.

In the following the invention is described in more de¬ tail with reference to the drawing, in which:-

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a workpiece for a conventional chain link, Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a couple of interhinged chain links as produced from workpieces according to Fig. 1 , Fig. 3 is a plan view of a workpiece for a chain link according to the invention, Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 2 of a couple of chain links according to the invention, and Fig. 5 is a plan view of a number of chain links for illustration of their lateral pivotability.

The chain link workpiece as shown in Fig. 1 is punched out of a heavy stainless steel sheet, 'e.g. 3 mm thick, and it consists of a generally laterally oriented main plate portion 2 having a forwardly projecting central strip portion 4, which, when rolled up, forms a central hinge part 6 as shown in Fig. 2, and having two rear- wardly projecting strip portions 8, which, when rolled up, form outer hinge parts 10 as shown in Fig. 2. The front edge of the workpiece, i.e. the base edge of the central strip portion 4, is at both sides of this strip portion provided with a recess 12 for receiving the outer hinge parts 10 of the neighbouring link, and correspondingly the rear edge of the workpiece, between the strip portions 8, is provided with a recess 14 for receiving the central hinge part 6 of the neighbouring

link. The consecutive chain links are hinged together by means of a hinge pin 16 as projecting through the rolle up hinge parts 6 and 10. The hinge pin is fixed to the outer- hinge parts 10, but the hinge otherwise shows a certain play enabling two neighbouring chain links to pivot slightly, mutually, in the plane of the link plates about the middle of the hinge, because the hinge pin fits loosely only in the central hinge portion 6, and because the axial length of this portion is some- what smaller than the free distance between the outer hinge portions 10. For enabling such a lateral mutual pivoting of the chain links the link plates 2 are shaped with a laterally outwardly slightly oblique or converg¬ ing form of the front and/or rear edges thereof.

In connection with the invention as now going to be de¬ scribed with reference to Figs. 3-5 the link workpieces are provided with a slightly modified shape, while ot¬ herwise all other circumstances such as the rolling up diameter of the hinge parts and the dimensions and the locations of the hinge pins are unchanged.

The main modification is that the outermost end portion 18 of the strip portion 4 for forming the central hinge part 6 is shaped with a considerably reduced width, while the base portion of the strip 4 is as wide as or only slightly narrower than the corresponding strip 4 of Figs. 1-2. As clearly apparent from Fig. 4 the rear portion of the hinge part 6 will hereby constitute a narrow strip- or nose-shaped portion, which will be ful¬ ly capable of holding the chain links against mutual separation by incidental forces seeking to force the links towards each other.

Now, the small width of the end portion 18 will account

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for the hinge pin 16 being horizontally pivotal through an angle, which is considerably larger than in Figs. 1-2, where the pivotability is restricted by the broad outer end of the strip 4. It is only the outer end por- tion of the strip or in other words only the rear por¬ tion of the hinge part 6 which is of considerably reduced width, so the hinge part ^' will still, through its broad¬ er base or front side portion, be able to transfer the normal operational pulling forces between the chain links, through the hinge pins.

When thus an increased lateral pivotability of the con¬ secutive chain links is achievable, the links should of course also be otherwise designed so as to permit the increased pivotability, i.e. the outwardly converging front and rear edges of the chain links should be still more converging than in Fig. 1-2, and the recesses 12 shall be of increased depth, as also shown in Fig. 3.

As illustrated in Fig. 3 the transitional area between the broad base portion of the strip 4 and the narrow outer portion thereof may be smoothly converging, but the shape of this area is unimportant when only the hinge part has a broad front side and a narrow rear side.

It may of course be possible to further increase the pi¬ votability by a die pressing of the parts, which form stop members for the pivoting. Thus, a slight pressing out of the interior lateral edges of the front side por¬ tion of the hinge part 6 would increase the pivotabili¬ ty without involving any mechanical weakening of the hinge. Generally, of course, the pivotability is condi- tioned by the pin 16 not filling out the hinge part 6, but it is here unimportant whether it is the hinge part which is oversized or the pin which is undersized, by

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showing a reduced diameter between the outer hinge parts 1 0.