Drive mechanism

Abstract

A drive mechanism for food handling and cleaning equipment incorporating a rotating barrel. The barrel can have mounted therein a plurality of shafts aligned with their longitudinal axes parallel to the longitudinal axis of the barrel. The drive mechanism includes a single motor adapted to drive via a V belt the shafts which are also linked by a timing belt slave.

1 . A drive mechanism for food handling, food processing and cleaning equipment incorporating a generally horizontally orientated rotating barrel in which are mounted a plurality of shafts aligned with their longitudinal axes parallel to the longitudinal axis of the barrel, the drive mechanism including a single motor adapted to drive by way of separate V-belts or a single V-belt configured with a plurality of adjacent V shaped surfaces the shafts, the arrangement of the V-belts or V-belt and a toothed timing belt slave yield a constant speed and shared load to the shafts.  
   
   
       2 . A drive mechanism for food and produce handling and cleaning equipment incorporating a generally horizontally orientated rotating barrel in which are mounted a plurality of shafts aligned with their longitudinal axes parallel to the longitudinal axis of the barrel, the drive mechanism including a single drive motor adapted to drive via a gearbox at least some of the plurality of shafts by either a plurality of separate V-belts or a single multi V-belt configured with a plurality of adjacent V shaped surfaces, the arrangement of the V-belt or V-belts and toothed pulleys or sprockets on the shafts driven by timing belt means yields a constant speed and shared load on all of the shafts under the drive of the single drive motor.  
   
   
       3 . The drive mechanism as claimed in  claim 2  wherein each shaft has a pair of pulleys or sprockets the first of which is driven by the V-belts and the second of which is linked by the timing belt means.  
   
   
       4 . The drive mechanism as claimed in  claim 1  wherein the timing belt means is a toothed timing belt adapted to drive toothed pulleys or sprockets on each shaft.  
   
   
       5 . The drive mechanism as claimed in  claim 1  wherein a single timing belt is provided to drive toothed pulleys or sprockets on all of the shafts.  
   
   
       6 . The drive mechanism as claimed in  claim 2  and substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawing.  
   
   
       7 . The rotary barrel brush washer including the drive mechanism claimed in  claim 1  and substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawing.