Abstract: A method is provided for conveying a series of articles along a conveyor path freely disposed on a conveyor surface while maintaining protective article-to-article separation. The method comprises the steps of introducing each article one at a time in a series to the conveyor surface, alternating the introducing of the articles with introduction to the conveyor surface of at least one relatively noncompressible and inelastic spacer freely disposed between adjacent articles in the series for separating the adjacent articles from each other, and conveying the series of articles alternated with the spacer on either side thereof along the conveyor, the articles being free to contact the spacer but not any other article in the series.

Abstract: This invention concerns a device for continuous adjustment of a set of workpiece mounts from a number of such mounts in defined work positions whereby the workpiece mounts are arranged with a certain spacing on an endless conveyor device that moves in rotation by increments such that the spacing corresponds to the length of one increment of movement of the conveyor device. Through additional simple adjustment means, the effect is acheived that the set of workpiece mounts in the working position can be adjusted to spacing that differ from the length of one increment of conveyor movement. Then the ork positions thus set are always maintained again in revolution of the endless conveyor device.

Abstract: The invention relates to a machine for manufacturing flat bodies in a continuous linear process. This is attained by the intermittent forward movement of the moulds on a closed circuit static runway, passing through the various operative steps for forming the pieces. The runway defines a rectangular trajectory and the moulds are square with bevelled vertices forming vertical channels for the actuation of centering elements. The moulds cover the totality of the circuit with the exception of two spaces at the diagonally opposed angles. Each straight section is provided with a pusher facing a buffer for the simultaneous and combined action until each mould reaches the end of the circuit. At a point of the circuit there is a fixed hopper beneath which there reciprocally moves a carriage bearing a metering hopper. Once the pieces have been formed they are removed by a pneumatic extractor having a multiple suction head.

Abstract: A universal vibratory feeder has a removable tray provided with a continuous serpentine path. A plurality of carriers are received in the path, and articles of manufacture are carried by the carriers around the path in the tray. A vibrating platen beneath the tray has a plurality of bristles engaging the bottom of the respective carriers. The bristles are oriented in the direction of travel of the carriers around the path. The path in the tray is formed by a continuous through opening which separates the tray into two portions. The carriers straddle the thickness of the tray and are in substantial abutting relationship to one another throughout the path, thereby precluding the tray portions from separating.

Abstract: In a feed mechanism for parts comprising a plurality of oblong pallets (30) provided with vessels (32) for receiving parts, a guide system conducting along a looped path (36) according to FIG.

Abstract: A pallet magazine for transporting workpieces from a loading station to an unloading station, and possibly past a working station, has two parallel, endless conveyor chain loops supported on and driven by spaced pairs of sprocket wheels having horizontal axes. A plurality of pallets for carrying the workpieces are adapted to rest slidably on the upper sections of the chains and to hang freely from the lower sections of the chains. A further sprocket wheel is provided between the sprocket wheels of each said pair thereof, and a rack adapted to engage the further sprocket wheels is provided on the underside of each pallet. Each pallet has lateral guide rollers with horizontal axes which engage semicircular guide members provided adjacent the sprocket wheels. A guide rail extends between the further sprocket wheels and is received between spaced guide projections provided on the pallet racks.

Abstract: Bar stock is fed to the chuck of a machine tool by a ball chain having a rigid pusher at the end engagable with the bar stock, the ball chain being advanced by a wheel having pockets for the ball chain.

Abstract: A secondary dryer device comprising a drying oven, for subjecting open containers of water detector pads to a secondary drying operation. The oven has a pair of elongate channels disposed side by side with open, outer-most ends and blind inner-most ends. One channel holds a plurality of containers in single file, whereas the other channel holds a plurality of containers in double file, whereby the dwell time is greatly increased. A transfer structure interconnects the blind ends of the channels to provide transfer of the containers from the narrow channel to the wider channel. A powered pushing device applies force to the containers of the single file, to advance said containers inwardly into the oven, toward the blind end of the channel. The oven has means which provides heat to raise the temperature and expel moisture.

Abstract: A goods conveyor wherein the goods are placed on a supporting surface connected with a conveyor member forming part of the goods conveyor track. The conveyor member is made up of a number of units placed in a tubular shaped guide. The unit is movable in the guide by means of a driving member. The supporting surface is connected with one of the units or is connected with a special member placed between two units. A displacement of the units in the guide also brings about a displacement of the supporting surface. The guide acts as a handrail in a staircase and the longitudinal slit faces downwards. The supporting surface is rotatably fixed to one end of the holder, the other end of which has a spherically-shaped part. The supporting surface can assume a vertical position and a horizontal position intended for the conveying of goods. The other end of the holder has also a sliding surface, usually a wheel, to cooperate with a sliding track oriented along the staircase.

Abstract: Garment treatment apparatus include one or more cabinets in which garments carried by hangers are treated by, for example, spraying and heating. However, to restrict loss of heat or processing medium from the cabinet the entrance and exit from the cabinet should be as narrow but at the same time the cabinet should not be too long. Therefore, the garment supports are passed into and out from the cabinet with the support positioned so that a garment or the support has its narrowest dimension transverse with the direction of entry and exit. Thus if the garment is a jacket, one shoulder leads into the cabinet and the other trails. Once in the cabinet, however, means are provided to change the direction of movement of the support, e.g. through 90.degree., without rotating the support so that a garment on the support may be moved through at least part of the cabinet with its narrowest dimension changed with the longitudinal axis of that part of the cabinet.

Abstract: An apparatus comprising elevator means for conveying carpet-formed flexible carriers in the vertical direction one about the other, an infeed station for inserting the carriers into the elevator means and an outlet station for removing the carriers from the elevator means, the carriers being mutually engageable at the outlet station and mutually disengageable at the infeed station and being controlled at the outlet station and at the inlet station by means of converging and diverging pairs of guideways which engage with sets of engagement means positioned at different levels at the front and trailing ends of each carrier.

Abstract: The invention provides apparatus suitable for use in continuous transfer of workpieces through a region of reduced pressure in which some operation is to be performed on each workpiece in turn, being particularly, but not exclusively, suitable for electron beam welding. The apparatus comprises a sealed chamber, to constitute the region of reduced pressure, and a passageway extending therethrough, with means defining a series of compartments for containing individual workpieces, the compartments being movable in succession along the passageway and through an operating station in the sealed chamber where the interior of each compartment in turn is exposed to the interior of the sealed chamber for the performance of an operation on a workpiece carried in the compartment.

Abstract: An apparatus is provided for adjusting pallet wheel track length when the spacing between pallets changes due to temperature changes such as in the sintering of ore. The apparatus comprises pivotable arc segments which can be opened or closed to expand and contract the track length, a wedge-shaped casting positioned between said arc segments and slidable in and out at right angles to said track containing track to mate with said arc segments, drive means for moving said arc segments and wedge and a sensor means for detecting a change in pallet spacing and activating said drive means.

Abstract: An injector with a pair of counter-rotating screws that are mounted along parallel axes in cylindrical chambers formed in a housing are driven in synchronism by a driver. A series of plates are slidably received in a track provided in the housing and are fitted between successive flights of the screws. The plates are carried by the screws in an endless path within the housing. Pockets formed by the plates, screw flights and chamber walls carry particulate solids from an inlet port to a discharge port of the housing for injection into a pressurized hydraulic transport line.

Abstract: An apparatus is disclosed for processing products aligned on a tape. In the present embodiment, the products are shown to be heat recoverable sleeves which are conveyed to a control station for insertion of a terminal. The work is then released from the control station and allowed to pass across a heater which recovers the sleeve about the terminal. To accomplish the above, a drive having a friction coupling and a positive coupling are employed to convey the work through the apparatus. A conditioned atmosphere process apparatus is employed for the heating of the sleeves and a controlled product feed apparatus controls the feeding of the work to the control station.

Abstract: A transport mechanism for transporting a series of carrier members carrying a plurality of receptacles through a processing zone wherein the carrier members are sequentially driven in a first passageway and are passed to a second and optionally to athird passageway by (a) angled guide grooves in the base of each member and pivots in the floor of the passageway and (b) angled camming surfaces respectively at the leading edge of each carrier member and at an appropriate corner between the first passageway and the second passageway. Each carrier member may contain materials in the receptacles for sampling, analysing or for automatic laboratory testing in the processing zone.

Abstract: An article translation apparatus is described for moving a series of substantially identical articles contiguously supplied to it, each of the articles having a rearwardly directed abutment face. The apparatus comprises at least one endless conveyor loop having a series of article driving dogs equally spaced therearound, each dog having a downwardly extending driving spur adapted drivingly to engage the abutment face of an article and further including a slot at its leading end, each dog being rotatably mounted at its trailing end to the conveyor loop, the loop having equally spaced stop means extending into each slot to set upper and lower limits to the permitted rotation of each dog.

Abstract: A toothed sprocket wheel provides an idler for driving test tube holders into and out of sharp turns which occur in the track of an automatic sample changer employed in radiopharmaceuticals. The sprocket is provided with a selected number of well-defined teeth and is rotatably mounted at the center of a relatively sharp turn so as to transfer the linear motion from the test tube holder at its point of entry into the turn to the test tube holder at the point of exit from the turn. Also disclosed is a tensioner or positioner in a substantially linear alignment of the test tube holders such that, upon varying the degree of insertion of the sprocket teeth between successive test tube holders, the relative spacing between successive test tube holders, and the overall test tube holder train length may be adjusted to compensate for expansion/contraction of the holders due to environmental conditions.

Abstract: A slide magazine insertable in a side opening in a slide projector and comprising a plastic body with a continuous rail having two elongated sidewalls and two arcuate endwalls, and a cross-plate giving the body an H-shaped transverse cross-section. A grooved drive shaft is rotatably mounted within one arcuate endwall, and a plurality of plastic slide holders are slidably mounted on the rail, each having a dovetail-like notch in its inner side receiving the rail, two detent fingers extending toward each other on the inner side of the rail, and a slotted slide-holding frame on the outer side. The magazine body is divided into relatively movable end sections that are urged together by a spring for pressing the stack of holders toward the shaft, and the track is shaped to tilt the holders toward the shaft for positive pick-up of the detent fingers by the grooves in the shaft, to feed the holders around the rail, the grooves and the fingers having mating V-shaped cross-sections.

Abstract: Buffer storage device for transfering textile coils from an irregularly operating coil feeding device to a uniformly advancing coil delivery device having a given coil delivery velocity includes a multiplicity of identical transport elements for at least one textile coil, respectively, the transport elements being shiftable towards one another, a conveyor section extending from the coil feeding device to the coil delivery device, the transport elements being movable on the conveyor section from the coil feeding device to the coil delivery device with varying and at least two-stage travel velocity so that the travel velocity thereof at least immediately before reaching the coil delivery device, in travel direction of the transport elements, corresponds to the given coil delivery velocity and otherwise is greater than the coil delivery velocity.

Abstract: A cooling or freezing apparatus comprising a housing containing a transport for moving, in a vertical direction, carriers for the goods to be cooled or frozen in the apparatus the carriers arranged one above the other, wherein the transport being arranged at the bottom of the housing and comprising two transport devices, each of which consists of a plurality of mutually parallel support rails arranged as generatrices of an imaginary cylinder and being rotatable about the axis of the cylinder, the two transport devices being arranged along the sides of the housing opposite each other and being connected to a drive for rotating the oppositely arranged transport devices about the axis thereof in mutually opposite directions, each of the carriers for the goods being provided with a support along the sides of the carriers, the height of the support being less than the spacing between two adjacent support rails of a transport device.

Abstract: A sample transport mechanism is disclosed for conveying test tube samples in an endless path to and then away from a test station. The samples are removably inserted into elongated test tube supports arrayed upon a table in two rows and moveable in a rectangular path. Underlying the table is a plate generally coextensive therewith and having brackets mounting pins projecting above the margin of the table above and below the rows. The sample supports have parallel grooves in their bottom surfaces transverse to the longitudinal axis of the supports, and into which the pins may engage. The plate also has two openings, one square and the other rectangular, and into which are engaged cams. The cams when rotated move the plate in a rectangular path with respect to the table. The spacing of the pin and slots is such that the pins normally engage two diagonally opposite corner trays and move them longitudinally toward the next row by the incremental distance separating two adjacent samples.

Abstract: A device for transporting sliced comestible product from a slicer and loading the product in packages includes a belt drive system, with a plurality of transfer carriages supported thereon, extending between the slicer and the loader. Each transfer carriage includes a grid of horizontal, parallel tines to support the product. The loader includes a loader carriage slidably depending from a track, and a plurality of hooked tines pivotably secured to the loading carriage. The hooked tines are adapted to rotate down between the transfer tines to remove the product therefrom as the loader carriage translates along the track toward the package to be filled. The loader carriage stops above the package, where side guides grasp the sides of the product as the loader tines swing away. A loader plunger then descends to urge the product into the package. The transfer carriages are slidably supported on the belt drive system, so that one or more transfer carriages may be temporarily stopped on the belts.

Abstract: An aerial transport system for continuously loading, conveying, and unloading of materials. The system includes a plurality of interconnected transport containers which may be moved by one or more traction cables in an endless path along pairs of suspended support cables. Guide rails are provided at the opposite terminal ends of the system for reliably reversing direction of travel of the containers. An auxiliary loop of track is provided adjacent one of the terminal ends for accommodating selected containers for servicing and repair without interfering with the normal conveyance of other containers about the system.