Variable-speed conveyor element, particularly for accelerated transporters

Claim 1

A variable-length conveyor element applicable to a handrail for a device for transporting people at variable speed, said conveyor element comprising: (a) a flexible link stretched between two attachment points and passing around two guide pulleys spaced apart from each other which, together with the two attachment points, form a quadrilateral that deforms as a function of a speed of conveyance; (b) said link being equipped with a series of adjacent blocks, each comprising a lower face for fixing the block onto said link, an upper face on which hands can rest, and two frontal faces, respectively front and rear, perpendicular to a direction of said link; (c) said frontal faces of a block in a rectilinear section of said link stretched between said two pulleys being in contact over their entire height with corresponding frontal faces of adjacent blocks; (d) said blocks in convex sections of said link turning on the pulleys being adapted to separate in angular fashion; (e) said two frontal faces, respectively front and rear, of each block having angular profiles deduced one from the other by translation parallel to said direction of said link, each front face of a block comprising at least one projection, and each rear face comprising at least one recess having a profile complementary to a profile of said projection, such that in the rectilinear section of said link between said two pulleys, each projection on a front face of a block fits into a complementary recess in a facing rear face of an adjacent block so as to form a mortise and tenon joint that is able to resist shearing forces applied on said link, said projections separating from said recesses in convex sections of said link.