Endless belt conveyor for collecting floating matter from water surface

Claim 1

In an endless belt conveyor for selectively collecting high viscosity oil or coarse floating matter as in a drift oil recovery system, said conveyor having a pair of pulleys, one of which pulleys being located above water level and the other pulley being located beneath water level, a pair of driving bands each extending endlessly between said pulleys at widthwise ends of said pulleys and synchronously driven together with said pulleys, a plurality of connection plates each extending between said driving bands perpendicular to the driving direction of said band and fixed at each end to said bands at a given interval in the driving direction, a plurality of projections provided outwardly on an upper surface of each of said connection plates at a given interval, and a plurality of flexible ropes endlessly extending between said pulleys at a given interval, the improvement comprising, (a) a plurality of sleeves provided on a lower surface of each of said connection plates at a given interval toward the driving direction, (b) said ropes comprising a plurality of resilient rubbery bodies, one of said ropes passing freely through each of said sleeves, (c) a rectangular filtering screen having a width substantially equal to the distance between said driving bands, said screen having end portions resiliently engaged with said projections in a detachable manner so as to entirely cover said conveyor, and (d) a comb-type wiper having a plurality of notches, said notches having a size corresponding to the length and width of said projections, a top end of said wiper contacting said pulley above water level in a tangential direction.