| 摘要 |
<p>The present invention provides an apparatus for receiving, in an infeed section (10), a stream of distributed articles (100), such as food items and the like, deposited in rows of like position. A slide mechanism (11) is used to retard the motion of the items (100) as they drop off the infeed section (10). In particular, the slide mechanism (11) is alternately moveable between a slide position and a flip position. In the slide position, the item drops off the edge of the belt (10) and slides across the primary slide surface (11A) and onto a second slide mechanism (12) having a secondary slide surface (12A) that is positioned to be in substantially the same plane as the primary slide surface (11A). The slide mechanism (11) is moved into the flip position for every other row of items (100). The items (100) to be flipped come off the conveyor belt (10) and come into contact with an abutting surface (11B). This surface (11B) changes the direction of the item (100) as it moves towards the transport mechanism (20) in conjunction with a reverse slide surface (12B) of the second slide mechanism (12). The item slides down the reverse slide surface (12B) on its top surface, thus flipping over at least 180 DEG from its orientation on the infeed conveyor belt (10). As a result a plurality of rows can be conveyed by the transport mechanism (20) to the filling and capping stations of an automatic sandwich making system, wherein alternate rows of food items (100) are oriented with their bottom surfaces facing upwards from the surface of the transport mechanism. <IMAGE></p> |
