Tubular belt conveyor

Claim 1

A tubular belt conveyor of the type in which an endless belt is wound round drive and driven rollers such that an upper section of said belt constitutes an outward belt and a lower section of said belt constitutes a return belt, and said outward and return belts are rolled up by deformation means into tubular form substantially along the entire length of said belts such that an object to be conveyed is wrapped in said outward belt and conveyed in the wrapped-in state, wherein supporting frames and horizontal rollers are alternately provided substantially along the entire length of said tubularly rolled-up outward and return belts at predetermined intervals, each of said supporting frames having the rein upper and lower passages through which said belts are inserted and being provided with a plurality of holding rollers on the peripheries thereof and each of said horizontal rollers being situated in the central position between said supporting frames which are juxtaposed so as to support the bottom of said belt orthogonal to said tubularly rolled-up belt, and each of said horizontal roller is pivotally supported on each bracket which is attached to a coupling member of each of said supporting frames in such a manner that the orientation thereof can be varied with respect to a belt running direction.