ARTICLE ALIGNMENT AND CONVEYING APPARATUS

摘要

An article alignment and conveying apparatus 10 is described for aligning elongated articles 12 in single file in a plurality of transversely spaced lanes and moving the articles while in the lanes past a work station 13. The apparatus 10 includes an article feed means in the form of a series of stepped conveyor beds 20 for receiving the articles and subdividing the articles into a number of channels 32 corresponding with the lanes. The articles fall from the channels 32 onto a belt conveyor 40 having a plurality of parallel narrow belts extending from the channels 32 past the work station. The belt conveyor 40 has a grooved bed section for corrugating the surface formed by the belts to transversely space and longitudinally align the articles. The belt conveyor 40 has a second bed section that is flat to flatten the supporting surface of the belt as the aligned articles moved past the work station 13.