All moving walkways that I know of either have bare metal surfaces, or are covered with rubber or rubber-like materials. Why not carpet? This would make them much more decorative, and more suitable for high-class businesses.
-- goldbb, Mar 22 2010

Actally baked, just once. http://books.google...%20Conveyor&f=false
Took me ten seconds to find I'm surprised 21 hasn't tried. [zeno, Mar 23 2010]

This isn't my area, but escalators and moving walkways are similar and I believe that they are both made slotted so that at the end there can be a stationary comb like piece which fits in the slots to stop most things from getting sucked in and down. I guess you could make slotted carpet, but it would ruin the effect. As for my taste, I'll err on the side of safety and say no to carpet and getting my loose shoelace/shoe/foot eaten by a moving walkway. (-)
-- MisterQED, Mar 22 2010


How about, instead of a comb, a cylindrical brush, counterrotating. Would keep children and pets out of the machinery, and contnuously clean the carpet. Would need a shield, to keep it from flinging grit into people's eyes, and, probably a vacuum pump to collect dust. [21_Quest] is that intuition, or do you have figures? (I Googled, couldn't find any, but am sure they must exist.) Industrial carpeting stands up to a lot of wear in conventional applications -- perhaps it would do as well in this one.
-- mouseposture, Mar 22 2010


//How about, instead of a comb, a cylindrical brush, counterrotating.// What do you do at the far side of the brush?
-- MisterQED, Mar 23 2010


[MisterQED] I'm not sure I understand the question. I'm picturing the brush axle parallel to, and at the same height as the axle of the carpet roller, the radius of the brush slightly less than that of the roller, the distance between the axles slightly less than the radius of the brush. The floor cantilevers over the brush towards the top of the roller, leaving a narrow strip where the brush is exposed. A vacuum is positioned to clean the brush somewhere in the under-floor space extending from opposite the roller to beneath the brush. We still need a shield of some sort to prevent the brush flinging grit at people; I think that could be made flexible and curved or angled in such a way that, if people's shoes bumped into it, they'd push it into the brush, rather than catching underneath it & causing a fall. The whole arangement involves a lot of friction, admittedly -- if this were used by upscale businesses, as [goldbb] suggests, they'd pay throgh the nose for maintenance and replacements.
-- mouseposture, Mar 23 2010


It's a good idea but the backing on most carpet won't take repeated bending for long. The old Jute backed carpets would stand a better chance but the polypropylene that they make todays carpets out of delaminates under , what's the word? 'torsional'? stress, where two surfaces are sheared against one another.
There are several carpets designed for ski lodge enterances that would work well though.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Mar 23 2010


I vote for a flowing river of mercury.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 23 2010


While a river of liquid mercury would provide sufficient buoyancy to support a person, it is generally desirable that the bottoms of the feet of the person on the conveyance be approximately level with the top surface of said conveyance. Mercury is insufficiently dense. Perhaps a river of neutrons?
-- goldbb, Mar 23 2010



random, halfbakery