Abstract: A walking-beam conveyor for stepped transport of heavy objects has an upstream beam extending in a horizontal transport direction and adapted to carry a plurality of the objects. A pair of horizontally spaced upstream supports underneath the upstream beam are associated with respective vertical and horizontal upstream drives for raising the upstream beam relative to the supports, shifting the upstream beam a step downstream, lowering the upstream beam, and shifting the upstream beam a step upstream to shift the objects on the upstream downstream in steps. In accordance with the invention a downstream beam immediately downstream of the upstream beam has an upstream end juxtaposed with a downstream end of the upstream beam with a single downstream support under the downstream beam. A pivot connects the downstream end of the upstream beam to the upstream end of the downstream beam for joint synchronous vertical and horizontal movement of the two beams.

Abstract: A conveyor having an array of rollers defining a transport plane is used with pallets each having supports forming an upwardly open saddle adapted to hold a coil of metal strip, and a pair of generally parallel and longitudinally extending rails underneath and fixed to the supports. Each rail has a downwardly directed face adapted to ride directly on the rollers and having a generally planar center region and a pair of upwardly angled end regions each forming a small acute angle with the respective center region.