Abstract: An apparatus for aligning elongated articles includes a turntable having a center and a periphery, an input track leading to the turntable for conveying elongated articles thereto and having a discharge end above the turntable and a direction of conveyance; and a guide rail stationarily supported above the turntable. The guide rail has a generally spiral course for guiding the articles towards the periphery of the turntable and aligning the articles in a single file as the turntable rotates. The apparatus further has an outlet track leading away from the turntable and an arrangement for pushing the articles off the turntable onto the outlet track. The guide rail has a first guide rail part situated between the center of the turntable and the discharge end of the input track and extending perpendicularly to the direction of conveyance of the input track. The guide rail includes a second guide rail part extending from an end of the first guide rail part and having a generally spiral course.

Abstract: Apparatus for reducing the accumulation pressure between succeeding items being conveyed in succession along an accumulation path to a receiving device, composed of a device for controlling the advance of items along the accumulation path in a manner to produce gaps between successive items in the conveying direction along the accumulation path, and a sensing unit disposed for monitoring the length of each gap and connected to the control device for causing the rate of supply of items to the outlet end of the accumulation path to be higher than the rate at which items are being conveyed from the accumulation path to the receiving device for a selected time period following each occurrence of a gap length exceeding a selected value, and to be lower than the rate at which items are being conveyed from the accumulation path to the receiving device at all other times, whereby a cyclic variation in gap length is produced between successive gaps.