Abstract: An improved in-feed method for, for example, the final closing stage of a bag filling machine of the type wherein a plurality of open bags with pre-formed gusseted tops are filled with a load of loose material and the gusseted tops reformed in a rapid sequence, and the bags are subsequently sealed closed. In the inventive method one bag pushes off the preceding bag in face-to-face engagement therewith along their front and rear sides, respectively, whereby the following or pushing bag being fed in is constrained on all four sides before it begins its infeeding movement. The four-sided constraint is provided by a multiple-finger pusher in the rear, opposing guides on the sides, and the presence of the preceding bag in front in face-to-face engagement therewith. Such frontal engagement prevents the load in the intermediate, following bag from shifting forwardly under the forward force of the pusher and opening the reformed gusseted bag top.

Abstract: Material is continuously dislodged by a pair of conical cutters and displaced outwardly toward the ribs of the room as the mining machine advances. The dislodged material is picked up by a transversely extending spiral conveyor and conveyed inwardly from the ribs onto the bottom strand of a flexible belt. The flexible belt has one end portion coiled on a lower rotatable spindle at a fixed discharge station adjacent the room entry. The other end portion of the flexible belt is coiled on an upper rotatable spindle positioned above the lower rotatable spindle. The intermediate portion of the flexible belt forms a lower conveying strand portion extending from the lower coil around a cylindrical idler or turn around pulley and an upper strand portion extending from the upper spindle to the turn around pulley. The upper strand portion extends between a pair of driven compression rollers to pull the upper strand toward the mining machine from the upper spindle.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for arranging, at a predetermined spacing on a reception conveyor, objects originating in an unevenly spaced manner from a delivery conveyor. The delivery conveyor is driven with continuous motion. The reception conveyor is driven with intermittent motion. The apparatus comprises a flexible closed loop member lying in a horizontal plane. A first portion of the flexible loop extends parallel to the end part of the delivery conveyor and a second portion extends parallel to the initial part of the reception conveyor. A series of suckers is distributed along the flexible member and mobile vertically by means of cams disposed along the first and second portions for causing the suckers to move close to and away from the delivery and reception conveyors. A distributor member is arranged to connect and disconnect the suckers cyclically to and from suction means for taking the objects from the delivery conveyor and depositing them respectively on the reception conveyor.