A CONNECTING CONVEYOR WITH A PROGRAMMABLE VARIABLE-SPEED BUFFER FOR TRANSPORT OF ARTICLES BETWEEN WORK UNITS, AND A FUNCTIONING METHOD THEREFOR

摘要

A conveyor including a buffer for articles or boxes of articles, using a method which comprises following operating conditions: a) all rollers (5) are rotating to cause normal advancing of the containers along the conveyor; b) the rollers (5) below the head container are stopped during a slowing or stopping of the line downstream of the conveyor in order to stop the head container at an outlet end of the conveyor; c) alternatively; i) on resolution of the slowing down or halting situation of the line downstream of the conveyor, the rollers corresponding to the head container are restarted and the operating condition a) is reset; ii) if the slowing down or halting situation persists downstream of the conveyor, the rollers below the successive container to the head container are stopped, and so on with the following containers up to when the slowing down situation or halting of the line downstream of the conveyor ends. The conveyor comprises stop organs (30) of the rollers (5) which can act separately on each roller (5) andcontrol organs (50) for commanding selective activation of drawing organs (10) of the rollers and the stop organs (30). Program means for actuating the method by means of controlling a computer are also claimed.