Abstract: Method and apparatus for collecting hangers hanging from overhead or a conveyor rail installed in, for example, a meat processing plant and for returning such collected hangers to the conveyor rail including a guide bar installed under the conveyor rail. The conveyor rail and the guide bar are provided with parallel curved portions at the ends so that the end of the guide bar is positioned above the end of the conveyor rail, thus the hangers having been suspended from the conveyor rail are inverted and brought upside-down at the end of the conveyor rail and suspended from the guide bar via the hook portions of the hangers. The thus upside-down hangers are collected on a carrying truck, and they are returned to the conveyor rail using a hanger transfer disk rotatably installed between the carrying truck and the guide bar.

Abstract: A chain of linked sausages is suspended from a bar in equally spaced loops by continuously discharging the chain of linked sausages while the chain is formed into into loops, suspending the loops of sausages directly from the bar a rearward end of which is situated inside the loops as they are formed, and successively moving each loop suspended from the bar toward a forward end of the bar while a uniform loop spacing is maintained.