This invention relates to a band conveyor, particularly for use in feeding tobacco to the cutter drum of a tobacco cutting machine.
Such a conveyor is described in British Pat. Specification No. 857,997 where the conveyor consists of upper and lower links, the shaping of which are such that the upper links have only a line contact with each other both when the band is straight and when it is curved. This construction is not entirely satisfactory in that it requires two different types of link and also the support on the sprocket teeth of a sprocket wheel for driving the band occurs at positions on the links which are subject to wear whereby a constant pitch cannot be maintained as the belt travels across the sprocket.
In use, a pair of such conveyors is arranged in converging relationship so that the tobacco is compressed as it is fed to the cutter drum. A support plate supports at least one run of the conveyor and a dead plate is provided to remove the compressed tobacco from the conveyor.
With the prior art conveyor the distance between the conveyor and the dead plate changes as the links become subject to wear as a result of friction between the links and the support plate.