ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,269,692, issued on April 8, was assigned to SPECIALTY CONVEYOR B.V. (Zwaag, Netherlands).
"Accumulating conveyor" was invented by Wouter Balk (Baambrugge, Netherlands), Emiel Martijn Schouten (Amsterdam) and Dick Kuin (Wervershoof, Netherlands).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A conveyor includes a helical track and a conveyor belt which is drivable along the helical track. The helical track is provided with an inner rail and an outer rail surrounding the inner rail. The conveyor belt is provided with slats that are mounted to a flexible conveyor line, such as a side-bow chain. Each of the slats is provided with a guide roller having an axi...