Conveyor apparatus having means for a shock-free article acceleration

摘要

A conveyor apparatus for sequentially advancing articles in a conveying direction comprises two parallel-spaced flexible pulling elements, each trained about an upstream and a downstream end wheel. A plurality of parallel-spaced article advancing bars, each oriented perpendicularly to the conveying direction, are supported by the two pulling elements and extend continuously therebetween. A stationary article supporting surface extends from between the first end wheels parallel to the conveying direction for supporting the articles as they are pushed in the conveying direction by respective article advancing bars. The article supporting surface has a starting location adjacent the upstream end wheels for sequentially receiving the articles to be engaged by an article advancing bar. The starting location is positioned relative to the upstream end wheels such that the article dwelling in the starting location is abutted by the article advancing bar at a moment when an imaginary plane passing through the article advancing bar and containing the rotary axes of the upstream end wheels defines, with the conveying direction, an angle of 45 DEG at the most, whereby a velocity component of the circumferential velocity in the conveying direction is at the most 71% of the circumferential velocity at the moment of contact between the article advancing bar and the article dwelling in the starting location.