Separating conveyor for stacked objects

摘要

An object-sorting system has a conveyor having a horizontally extending stretch, a plurality of pushers fixed on and spaced along the conveyor and extending upward from the stretch thereof, and an upright chute adapted to hold a stack of objects and having a downwardly open outlet spaced above an upstream end of the conveyor stretch. An elongated support surface extends horizontally above the stretch and has an upstream end below the outlet port. A drive advances the stretch and thereby displaces the pushers downstream past the outlet so that the pushers engage at least a lowermost object of the stack in the chute and move the engaged object(s) downstream along the support surface. The support surface can pivot about an axis at the support-surface downstream end and thereby change a vertical spacing between the support surface upstream end and the outlet port.