We had a conveyor like that from a major manufacture and the set-up/maintenance of it was a real problem. As it was newly purchased, no one wanted to budget a real solution to correct the issue. So, it always wound up in a catastrophic state before being addressed; this went on for years.
If you can go with friction discs or slipping sprung teeth, please do. In our case, a properly sized shear pin would have been better in the long run. The amount of torque and the cause of the jam (reason for the clutch) plays an important role as well.
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If you want to look at something heavy duty, find a truck repair book and look up Mack truck differentials. They use a series of radial pins which are actuated by internal cams, all in place of spider gears. Very stout and durable.
Constant mesh Hodaka transmission. Gears (8-12) are slid on the transmission shaft (6) and each is free to spin at rpm dictated by cluster gear (1). Bumpy steel piece (20) gets dragged axially by shift rod (16).
One ball bearing (7) lives permanently in each hole of the transmission shaft (6). When (20) is directly under a set of 4 balls they are forced outward, locking their gear by its ID notches to shaft (6).
Note the springs on either side of (20), since it will take a moment for the gear notches to line up with the holes in shaft (6) and allow the balls to polk above the shaft surface.
