Todd Elliott Eckert

US Patent:

20060260911, Nov 23, 2006

Filed:

Mar 17, 2004

Appl. No.:

10/549439

Inventors:

Todd Eckert - Huntington IN, US
Steve Buffmyer - Oxford MI, US
Carol Shuttleworth - Huntington IN, US
Gregory Stroud - Huntington IN, US

Assignee:

SHUTTLEWORTH, INC. - Huntington IN

International Classification:

B65G 13/06

US Classification:

198784000, 198780000, 198781060

Abstract:

Apparatus and methods for conveying products to be wrapped. In one embodiment, a conveying section is located upstream of a product infeed and wrapping mechanism. The conveying section includes rollers for conveying the products. The roller shafts are controlled in three different groups by an electronic controller. In one embodiment the first group comprises slippable rollers, and the two downstream conveying sections include fixed rollers. The fixed rollers are electronically controlled to substantially the same speed, but with slight phase or positional differences therebetween. In another embodiment of the present invention, a conveyor includes a right side drive on the right side of the conveying path, and a left side drive on the left side of the conveying path. The conveyor includes a plurality of roller shafts which have a single driving wheel on one end. The roller shafts can be driven by either the right drive or the left drive by simply removing the shaft, swapping it over end for end, and reinserting it with the drive wheel being driven by the other drive.