Roller conveyor with plastic wheel assembly

Claim 1

A roller conveyor comprising: a frame having a pair of spaced apart elongated sides; a plurality of parallel axles extending across said frame and rigidly connected at the ends thereof to said sides; each axle including a plurality of cylindrical wheel bushings spaced apart along the length of said axle, the inner diameters of said bushings being larger than the diameter of said axles so that said bushings are positionable along said axles; plastic wheels constructed from ultra-high molecular weight polymer having high abrasion resistance and a low co-efficient of friction rotatably mounted about each of said wheel bushings; and cylindrical spacers disposed about said axles and extending between each of said wheel bushings; washers disposed between each of said bushings and spacers; the diameter of said spacers and bushings being larger than the inner diameter of said washers whereby the washers are abuttingly held between a spacer and a bushing in a predetermined position along the length of said axles; said spacers having varied lengths such that the wheels spaced along an axle are laterally staggered relative to the wheels spaced along the adjacent axles; wherein an object may be easily rolled along the length of said frame over the top of said wheels.