Conveyor roller

Claim 1

In a roller conveyor comprising a frame, a plurality of conveyor roller means rotatably mounted in said frame and cooperatively defining an article conveying path lying in an approximate first general plane commonly tangent to the uppermost surfaces of said roller means, and drive means for driving said roller means in coordinated rotation to advance articles supported upon said roller means along said path; the improvement wherein each of the said plurality of roller means comprises: a roller drive shaft mounted in said frame for rotation about its shaft axis, a cylindrical inner roller member mounted on said shaft for rotation therewith with the axis of said inner roller member fixedly located in parallel offset eccentric relationship to the shaft axis, and a hollow cylindrical outer roller member coaxially received upon said inner roller member and frictionally engaged therewith, and wherein a first group of said roller means are coupled to said drive means for in-phase eccentric rotation about their shaft axes with said shaft axes lying in a common general plane parallel to said first general plane, and a second group of said roller means are coupled to said drive means for in-phase eccentric rotation about their shaft axes with said shaft axes parallel to the axes of said first group of roller means and lying in said common general plane, the roller means of said second group being interposed between the roller means of said first group and the phase of rotation of said second group of roller means differing from the phase of rotation of said first group whereby said first general plane of said conveying path is alternately defined by said first and by said second group of roller means as said roller means are driven in rotation by said drive means.