The invention relates to 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, having at least one overlapping unit which comprises a belt conveyor having at least two tracks, wherein an upper track and a lower track are deflected at the incoming side about a common input axle and at the outgoing side about two output axles disposed at different height levels.

The invention relates to 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, having at least one overlapping unit which comprises a belt conveyor having at least two tracks, wherein an upper track and a lower track are deflected at the incoming side about a common input axle and at the outgoing side about two output axles disposed at different height levels.

A de-traying method and apparatus for removing articles from trays, is useful with a plurality of trays, each of the trays having a base, a rim around the base and an opening in said base and a bottom covering said opening. The bottom is liftable from said base. A tray that is supporting an article on said bottom is transported to a detraying assembly. The article is detrayed at the detraying assembly by elevating the bottom at least to the level of the tray rim with an article lifter from below the tray. The article lifter includes a lifting base and a plurality of lifting blocks fixed to the lifting base. The lifting blocks are sized and arranged to engage the tray bottom through the opening in response to the lifting base being elevated. The lifting blocks are sized and arranged to maintain orientation of the tray with at least one of said blocks positioned outside of the tray adjacent the rim. The article is displaced off of the elevated tray bottom.

A conveyor belt comprising a first longitudinal belt portion and a second longitudinal belt portion having respective transport surfaces with coefficients of friction different from each other.

A de-traying method and apparatus for removing articles from trays, each of the trays having a base, a rim around the base and an opening in said base and a bottom covering said opening and liftable from said base. A tray supporting an article is transported to a detraying assembly where the article is detrayed by elevating the bottom at least to the level of the tray rim with an article lifter having a lifting base and a plurality of lifting blocks. The lifting blocks are sized and arranged to engage the tray bottom through the opening in response to the lifting base being elevated, and to maintain orientation of the tray with at least one of said blocks positioned outside of the tray adjacent the rim. The article is displaced off of the elevated tray bottom.

A conveyor belt system having a belt in contact with an array of actuators that are functional to move the belt in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the belt. The belt actuators can be functional to move individually to form a desired topography of the belt. The conveyor belt system can, thereby, move a workpiece in three dimensions for improved manufacturing and/or warehousing.

A conveyor belt system having a belt in contact with an array of actuators that are functional to move the belt in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the belt. The belt actuators can be functional to move individually to form a desired topography of the belt. The conveyor belt system can, thereby, move a workpiece in three dimensions for improved manufacturing and/or warehousing.

An apparatus that shapes a narrow container stream into a wider container stream includes a shaping region in which a deceleration segment follows the container inlet and a shaping segment, which forms the container outlet, follows the deceleration segment. Within the shaping region, laterally adjacent transport bands define a transport plane for moving containers. Container guides extend from the container inlet to the container outlet and delimit corresponding first and second sides of the shaping region between two limit curves. The container guides have inner sides that guide the containers. These sides are curved about axes perpendicular to the horizontal transport plane.

An apparatus that shapes a narrow container stream into a wider container stream includes a shaping region in which a deceleration segment follows the container inlet and a shaping segment, which forms the container outlet, follows the deceleration segment. Within the shaping region, laterally adjacent transport bands define a transport plane for moving containers. Container guides extend from the container inlet to the container outlet and delimit corresponding first and second sides of the shaping region between two limit curves. The container guides have inner sides that guide the containers. These sides are curved about axes perpendicular to the horizontal transport plane.

A transport device for transporting trays. The transport device including a first conveyor belt and a second conveyor belt that is downstream and follows the first conveyor belt. The first and second conveyor belts may have either a single- or multi-track design. The second conveyor belt may include a parallelization device configured to slowing down and/or accelerate one or more trays being conveyed on the second conveyor. The parallelization device may comprises at least one carrier with at least one acceleration finger and may be selectively moveable to prevent, slow down, allow, or accelerate a movement of a tray.