Conveyor skirt board and holder

Abstract

A skirt board and installation arrangement adapted effectively to seal a moving conveyor belt, including skirt board sections interlocked with each other and individually adjustable and removable for replacement, which can be accomplished easily without major tools and without stopping the conveyor belt. The skirt board sections are simple to install individually, or by groups and these operations may be performed while the conveyor belt continues to run and when installed, maintains a proper and effective seal with the belt.

What is claimed is: .[.1. A skirt board installation for a conveyor having a travelling belt including a mounting plate secured on the vertical walls of a conveyor loading chute, a plurality of skirt board sections capable of contacting said belt, means individually and adjustably mounting said skirt board sections on said mounting plate to permit adjustment of each section toward said belt and to retard movement of each section away from said belt, and said skirt board sections each including generally vertical slides and guideways along their adjoining edges allowing for said adjustment and said movement..]. .[.2. A skirt board installation as in claim 1 wherein the individual mounting means comprises cooperating generally vertical guideways and slides allowing for said adjustment of the sections toward said belt..]. .[.3. A skirt board installation as in claim 2 wherein said cooperating guideways and slides include the means to 
     
        retard movement of the sections away from the belt..]. 4. A skirt board installation for a conveyor having a travelling belt including a mounting plate secured on at least one of the vertical walls of a conveyor loading chute, at least one skirt board section connectible to said mounting plate, a slide and guideway interlocking connection disposed between said mounting plate and said skirt board section allowing generally vertical movement of said skirt board section with respect to said mounting plate and friction means disposed between said mounting plate and said skirt board section adapted to permit sliding of said skirt board section toward said conveyor but to retard movement of said skirt board section away from said belt, said friction means being disposed in said slide and guideway 
     
     
        connection. 5. A skirt board installation as in claim 4 including a plurality of skirt board sections slidable with respect to said mounting 
     
     
        plate. 6. A skirt board installation as in claim 5 including means connecting adjacent skirt board sections which allow for relative vertical 
     
     
        movement with respect to each other. 7. A skirt board installation as in claim 4 in which at least one mounting plate and at least one skirt board section is mounted on a plurality of said vertical walls of said loading 
     
     
        chute. 8. A skirt board installation as in claim 5 wherein said skirt board sections are each removable and having a notch to assist in removing each skirt board section upwardly from between adjoining skirt board 
     
     
        sections. 9. A skirt board installation as in claim 6 wherein said skirt board sections have interlocking slides and guideways along their respectively adjoining side edges allowing relative vertical sliding 
     
     
        movements of the several sections. 10. A skirt board installation as in claim 4 wherein said slides each include an outwardly disposed flat face on the respective projecting slides and each includes serrations on said face disposed to resist sliding movement of the skirt board sections away from said belt. .Iadd. 11. A skirt board installation for a conveyor having a traveling belt including at least one mounting plate; a plurality of skirt board sections disposed above said belt and adapted to contact said belt and connectible to said mounting plate; a slide and guideway interlocking connection between said mounting plate and said skirt board sections allowing generally vertical movement of said skirt board sections with respect to said mounting plate; and friction means disposed in said slide and guideway connection between said mounting plate and said skirt board section adapted to permit sliding of said skirt board section toward said conveyor but to retard movement of said skirt board section away from said belt. .Iaddend..Iadd. 12. A skirt board installation as in claim 11 including means connecting adjacent skirt board sections which allow for relative vertical movement of each with respect to the other. .Iaddend.