Patent attributes
A transfer module for a universal sorting conveyor has a ball belt looped around two pulley assemblies mounted to a frame and driven in a machine direction. Two bi-directional cross-belt assemblies are mounted to the frame to provide two smooth surfaced belts each supported on a roller bed. The belts extend beneath and engage the ball belt to advance a conveyed parcel in the cross direction. Each cross belt assembly has internal motorized drive rollers at the ends and a multiplicity of closely spaced idler rollers of smaller diameter than the drive rollers which define the roller bed, with a spacing between the idlers rollers of less than one inch. The ball belt has a plurality of plastic link bodies pivotally connected to one another, each with a downwardly opening socket having downwardly facing entry notches which allow distortion of the socket for entry of a ball therein.
