THE RELATED ART

The invention relates to conveyor belts used in transfer of food products such as fruits and vegetables from one point to another for packaging, sorting, or other purposes, and consisting of plurality of consecutively aligned rollers.

THE PRIOR ART

Fruits and vegetables have varying quality and size. These fruits and vegetables are desired to be transferred from one point to another for various reasons. Classification, or in other words, sorting is the procedure of classifying harvested fruits and vegetables according to their robustness, shape, colour, and quality. During the process of sorting of food products, especially according to their quality, the products are carried on a conveyor belt. While the fruits and vegetables move on the rotating roller conveyor, they are also rotated around their own axis to be seen from all angles, so shat the ones that are rotten, have bruises, and does not meet the standards can be sorted by hand. At the same time, various conveyor mechanisms are used in order to provide passage of fruits, vegetables etc. raw materials between sorting, washing etc. operations and carry the raw material to vehicles found on different elevations. Among these mechanisms, the most common ones are the elevators and the conveyor belts. While the conveyor belt is used for horizontal transfer, roller elevator is used to lift the raw material upward.

Moreover, roller elevators and conveyors are not exclusively used for carrying operations in the food plants. These mechanisms are actively used in operations such as washing, sorting etc. By means of rotating the products around their own axis, roller conveyors and elevators both facilitate the operation of picking of the products and also assist the movement of the products moving in bulk on the rollers and thus contribute to their alignment. In this way, a homogeneous distribution of the products is obtained on the conveyor while they are being carried to the other unit. However, while being carried, the food products that are in motion on the conveyor belt are subject to some negative impacts due to the direction of rotation of the rollers that form the belt.

While the rollers make an advancing motion in parallel to the ground plane while carrying the food products in parallel to the ground plane, at the same time, they make a rotating motion around their central axes like a wheel. The products passing over the roller pick conveyors of the prior art systems are squeezed and crushed and various additional components are used in order to prevent that.

Especially intact, robust, shelled, and relatively soft fruits are destroyed at the exits of these conveyors. Moreover, since the product generally has sugar, when it is broken into pieces, the rollers become sticky and thus also cause breaking of other products, that wouldn't normally break, by means of jamming them at the exit. On the other hand, the juices of these fruits that are broken into pieces, cause growth of bacteria and lead to unmonitored damages.

Due to the damage caused on the intact products, and the increase of the damage on the already damaged products, the need for a novel solution for above said problems is obvious in the light of the prior art situation.

PURPOSE OF THE INVENTION

The invention completely eliminates breaking, jamming, or compaction of fruits and vegetables and other products at the end of food sorting belts.

This purpose, in the most general sense, is achieved by rotation of said food products on said rollers in opposite direction to the direction of rotation of said rollers and this direction being the direction going away from the conveyor where the product leaves the roller conveyor belt and providing the rollers with the feature of pushing the product. When the product having a rotating motion in the direction going away from said conveyor touches the ground after leaving the conveyor, it would make a motion like the advancement of a wheel on the ground. Even the product that cannot advance due to accumulation is not jammed or compacted by the roller that comes down, because the rollers would make a motion with the purpose of taking the product out by means of having an axial motion that would lift the product up instead of jamming or pressing it.

The structural and characteristic features of the invention and all advantages will be understood better in detailed descriptions with the figures given below and with reference to the figures, and therefore, the assessment should be made taking into account the said figures and detailed explanations. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES FOR BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE INVENTION

Figure 1 is the perspective view showing the operating principle of the roller conveyor belt of the present invention.

Figure 1a is the two dimensional schematic drawing showing the operating principle of the roller conveyor belt of the invention.

Figure 2 is the perspective view showing the operating principle of the roller conveyor belt of the prior art.

Figure 2a is the two dimensional drawing showing the operating principle of the roller conveyor belt of the prior art. The congestion/compaction of the product can be clearly seen.

REFERENCE NUMBERS

A- Roller conveyor belt,

1. Roller

2. Product

3. Driving chain

4. Main gear

5. Roller rotating chain

6. Roller gear

7. Roller center

8. Ground

z- Parallel direction to the ground plane

Θ- Main gear direction of rotation

x- Roller direction of rotation

y- Product direction of rotation x - Product direction of rotation

y'- Roller direction of rotation DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF AN EXAMPLE OF THE INVENTION

It is of great benefit to describe the prior art in detail in order to provide better understanding of the present invention. Figure 2 is the perspective view showing the operating principle of the roller conveyor belt (A) of the prior art. As shown in the figure, the rollers (1) move the food products (2) they carry by means of shifting them in parallel direction to the ground plane (z). Rollers (1) move in z direction. The rotating (Θ) motion of the main gear (4) provides this motion to the rollers (1). With the rotation (Θ) of the main gear (4), the driving chain (3) that is attached to the main gear (4) also moves. Each element of the driving chain (3) is connected to a roller (1) and this shifting motion (z) of the rollers (1) is achieved by means of this arrangement. However, the rollers (1) also rotate around their own roller centers (7) during this motion (z). This direction of rotation around its own center (7) is in X direction. And the rotating motion in X direction is provided by the roller rotating chain (5), which is connected to the roller gears (6) and found in motionless fixed state. Since the roller rotating chain (5) is motionless, the moving rollers (1) rotate in X direction and the food product (2) found on it rotate in Y direction. When the products (2) fall down and touch the ground (8), it would want to move in - z direction towards the roller conveyor belt (A) it came from. This way of motion causes the problems described in the prior art. The reason for this is the product (2) having a direction of rotation (y) that goes away from the roller conveyor belt (A).

Figure 1 is the perspective figure showing the operating principle of the roller conveyor belt (A) of the present invention. The only and the most important difference of the present invention structure is the roller rotating chain (5) being positioned at the upper part of the roller gear (6). In this way, the roller rotating chain (5) is still fixed and motionless and due to the new position of the roller rotating chain (5), now the rollers (1) would be rotating in (Y) direction during the movement of the rollers (1) in Z direction. As it can be seen in the figure, rotation of the rollers (1) in Y direction would cause rotation of the food products (2) in X direction. With such kind of design, the product (2) would have a product direction of rotation (y) that goes away from the roller conveyor belt (A) (See Figure 1a). In the prior art, the product (2) has a product direction of rotation (y) towards the roller conveyor belt (A) (See Figure 2a). When the product having a direction of rotation (y) that goes away from the roller conveyor belt (A) meets with the ground (8), it would continue its motion in the rotating direction (y) and thus go away from the conveyor (A). Therefore, during the falling process of the food product (2) from the conveyor (A) with a direction of rotation (y) that goes away from the conveyor (A), when the product meets with the ground (8), it would be prevented from being subjected to a situation of congestion/compaction. In cases where it cannot move due to accumulation, it wouldn't be compacted and the product (2) would be lifted up with a motion of taking out.