A sod harvester can include an auxiliary stacking conveyor for stacking or folding slabs of sod on a conveyor prior to the stacked/folded slabs being removed from a stacking conveyor by a stacking head. The auxiliary stacking conveyor can be configured to receive a leading slab of sod and then stack the leading slab on top of a trailing slab while the trailing slab is being advanced along a conveyor. The auxiliary stacking conveyor can also be configured to partially receive a slab of sod and then reverse direction to cause the slab to be folded backwards on top of itself while being advanced along a conveyor. Different configurations can be employed to cause slabs to be selectively positioned on an auxiliary stacking conveyor.

An apparatus for a packaging machine comprising; a first conveyor for conveying an input stream of articles, a second conveyor for conveying an output stream of articles, a guide path configured as a loop and one or more tools coupled to the guide path. Each tool comprises a tool head for engaging with one or more articles in the input stream. The tool head is operable to transfer the one or more articles from the first conveyor to the second conveyor. The one or more articles are placed upon the second conveyor in discrete groups having one or more tiers.

An apparatus for a packaging machine comprising; a first conveyor for conveying an input stream of articles, a second conveyor for conveying an output stream of articles, a guide path configured as a loop and one or more tools coupled to the guide path. Each tool comprises a tool head for engaging with one or more articles in the input stream. The tool head is operable to transfer the one or more articles from the first conveyor to the second conveyor. The one or more articles are placed upon the second conveyor in discrete groups having one or more tiers.

A battery inspection system includes a controller configured to perform: group control of managing a predetermined number of batteries taken in by a take-in conveyor as a same group; inspection control of controlling a conveying device to bring the batteries taken in by the take-in conveyor into an inspection device that is not performing inspection, and also controlling the conveying device to retrieve the batteries that have been inspected from the inspection device; and storage control of controlling the conveying device to store at least some of the batteries retrieved from the inspection device into the storage device, and also controlling the conveying device to continuously deliver a set of batteries of the same group from the inspection device or the storage device to the take-out conveyor.

A battery inspection system includes a controller configured to perform: group control of managing a predetermined number of batteries taken in by a take-in conveyor as a same group; inspection control of controlling a conveying device to bring the batteries taken in by the take-in conveyor into an inspection device that is not performing inspection, and also controlling the conveying device to retrieve the batteries that have been inspected from the inspection device; and storage control of controlling the conveying device to store at least some of the batteries retrieved from the inspection device into the storage device, and also controlling the conveying device to continuously deliver a set of batteries of the same group from the inspection device or the storage device to the take-out conveyor.

The invention relates to a food-processing system for processing food products (e.g. pieces of meat, pieces of cheese), comprising a cutting device (1) for cutting the food products into slices and a conveyor (4) for conveying the food product portions (6) away from the cutting device (1) along a main conveyor path, wherein the conveyor (4) fulfills several functions in the food-processing system, such as buffering, aligning, orienting and product formatting of the food product portions. The invention provides that the conveyor (4) fulfills the multiple functions by means of a discontinuous conveyor (4), the discontinuous conveyor (4) comprising at least one conveyed-products carrier (3) movable along the main conveying path, the main conveying path being freely programmable within a conveying area.

A conveyor line arrangement for tapering a conveyor flow of piece goods includes a first section divided into at least a first partial conveyor flow and a second partial conveyor flow and to generate a height difference between the first partial conveyor flow and the second partial conveyor flow such that the first partial conveyor flow is arranged higher than the second partial conveyor flow at the end of the first section, and a second section is configured to take over piece goods from the first partial conveyor flow and the second partial conveyor flow of the first section, and wherein the conveyor line arrangement is configured to feed the first partial conveyor flow to the second partial conveyor flow by transferring piece goods from the first partial conveyor flow to piece goods of the second partial conveyor flow on the second section.

An apparatus for the lateral overlapping of portions which are transported in a longitudinal direction and which each comprise at least one slice cut off from a food product is provided.

An apparatus for the lateral overlapping of portions which are transported in a longitudinal direction and which each comprise at least one slice cut off from a food product is provided.

Input stacks of value documents are inserted in an input pocket of the value document processing apparatus, transported through the apparatus, checked and sorted into different deposit pockets of the value document processing apparatus, wherein reject value documents are deposited separately from the valid value documents. The reject value documents are automatically transported back to the input pocket with the aid of a reject transport device, to check the reject value documents again with the same value document processing apparatus (rerun). The reject transport device has several reject transport units, in which the reject value documents from the different input stacks are deposited separately from each other, and a reader for reading in the machine-readable identifier of the respective reject transport unit used for assigning the reject value documents of the respective reject transport unit to the input stack to which these reject value documents belong.