ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,397,996, issued on Aug. 26, was assigned to Ashworth Bros. Inc. (Fall River, Mass.).
"Spiral conveyor system" was invented by Darroll Joseph Neely (Gerrardstown, W.va.) and Bryan Hobbs (Medford, Minn.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A spiral conveyor system may include a cage associated with a motor; a conveyor belt traveling helically about the cage; the cage including a plurality of drive elements formed of vertically oriented cage bars; a cage bar cap mounted on at least one of the cage bars; the cage bar cap including a vertically oriented rib extending radially from a surface of the cage bar cap; wherein the rib includes at least one...