Accumulating conveyor for elongated stock

摘要

An accumulating conveyor for elongated stock, such as tubes, rods, bars and similar articles. At least three independently operable conveyor banks are arranged for sequentially transferring elongated stock from one bank to the next. Each conveyor bank includes a number of elongated substantially parallel racks which extend in the direction of desired conveyance and each rack has at least two adjacent rows of teeth extending longitudinally along the rack. The teeth of one row of each rack are staggered with respect to the teeth of the other row and a drive is connected to alternately raise one row of teeth above the other whereby elongated stock placed transversely on one end of the racks will be moved to the other end of the racks for offloading or transfer to an adjacent conveyor bank. Sensors are positioned for sensing the presence of elongated stock on each conveyor bank and for energizing and deenergizing selected ones of the conveyer bank drives whereby elongated stock fed into one end of the accumulator conveying apparatus is moved to the other end and elongated stock is accumulated on the intermediate conveyor banks.