US Patent 11299352 Automatic cart transport system

An automatic cart transport system. A track located in a factory working floor provides a trackway for an endless flexible conveyor chain. A plurality of chain units including a first chain portion having vertical rollers and a second chain portion having horizontal rollers are flexibly coupled, and the chain is advanced along the trackway by a drive motor. The chain units support thereabove, but within the track, a coupling plate having therein an aperture for accepting and capturing a chain connection shaft which is detachably connected to a cart. The cart is automatically towed along a defined pathway on the working floor of a factory by the chain, when connected to the coupling plate on the endless flexible conveyor chain.