Abstract: A shear for cutting a stock between a feed conveyor and a discharge conveyor has a pair of rollers which can engage the stock when the movable blade is in its upper position, the slide having a stroke equal to the distance by which the discharge conveyor is located below the feed conveyor.

Abstract: An apparatus for displacing profiled steel rods, especially concrete reinforcing rods, off a roll conveyor. The apparatus includes a plurality of bars interspersed with the rolls of the conveyor. At their undersides, the bars are associated with respective bearing bolts which are adapted to be received by horizontally aligned sockets so that in the rest position the upper surfaces of the bars are located below the level of the top of the conveyor. Piston and cylinder combinations are provided at each side of the conveyor to selectively raise one bearing bolt out of its socket while retaining the other bearing bolt seated in its socket, thereby to move the bars up above the conveyor and to create an inclined plane by which a rod traveling along the conveyor and engaged by the bars can be displaced and cast off the conveyor to one side or the other depending on the sense of inclination of the bars.