A device and a method for transferring piece goods between adjacent conveyor sections. A central pivot deflector between the conveyor sections and/or one or two outer pivot deflectors disposed on the outer sides of the conveyor sections can be pivoted about their pivot axes between first and second transfer positions and a passage position. In the transfer position, the pivoting deflector(s) block one of the conveyor sections obliquely from the outer side towards the center strip, so that an item of piece goods is transferred from one conveyor section to the other conveyor section. The pivoting deflectors are mounted substantially at the same level as the conveyor sections in both transfer positions. Thus piece goods can be transferred optionally from the first to the second conveyor section or vice versa at the same level. No item of piece goods is affected in the passage position.

A material handling system includes a very high speed linear sortation conveyor that receives articles at an operating speed of 650 to 700 feet per second (fps) and up to 100 fps with gapping as small as one inch. In one or more embodiments, a recirculation sortation conveyor receives articles that are not diverted by the linear sortation conveyor with dynamic capacity sufficient to handle a high speed shutdown of the linear sortation conveyor. The recirculation sortation conveyor is itself a very high speed linear sortation conveyor having a pusher pre-sort feature that can distribute received articles at different lateral positions on an endless conveyor to align with more than one recirculation sortation conveyors that may be operating at a slower operating speed. In an exemplary embodiment, the recirculation sortation conveyor has a divert section for diverting articles to a divert target on a lateral side.

A method and apparatus for horizontally shifting an article group or article layer, composed of a plurality of articles, from a first position and/or from a conveying movement into a second rest position while largely maintaining the relative positions of the articles in the article layer or group to each other, said transfer being effected by at least one first pusher bar engaging with the articles located at the back of the article group or article layer, as considered in relation to the conveying or feed direction. A support bar, which is at least temporarily allocated to the articles located at the front of the article group or layer, as considered in relation to the conveying direction, moves ahead at a slight distance from or abuts on the foremost articles of the article group or layer at least immediately before or on reaching the rest position.

A conveyor assembly is provided with one or more partitions to divide or segment one or more conveyor rows. The assembly comprises a conveyor including an inlet and an outlet, with conveyor transport surface extending between the inlet and the outlet, which may by roller wheels. A plurality of retainers are supported by the conveyor in spaced relation with at least one partition extending between the retainers. Mounting interfaces between the retainers and the at least one partition facilitate removable support of each partition by the retainers.

A sortation conveyor has an endless apron supported for longitudinal movement on an elongate frame. An induction conveyor deposits articles on an offset lateral portion of a top conveying run of the apron. A pin guide assembly is coupled between the elongate frames and is upwardly presented to selectively receive the pin of pushers that laterally move across the apron. An upstream pre-sort section thereof positions articles from the offset lateral portion to an opposite lateral portion of the top conveying run. A downstream divert section of the pin guide assembly selectively diverts the articles to a divert target on the corresponding lateral side to the selected one of offset lateral position and the opposite lateral position.

A system for feeding preforms to a container blow-molding machine includes a sorting and alignment device fed with randomly arranged preforms and parallel alignment rollers that rotate about their respective axes and arrange the preforms in conveyance tracks inclined with respect to the horizontal. The system includes elements for removing the incorrectly positioned preforms, which are individually laid flat and arrive from the alignment rollers on the conveyance tracks and are oriented parallel to the longitudinal advancement direction. The removal components include an upper guide having a flow control portion arranged at least in one active blocking position thereof, above the end of the alignment rollers proximate to the conveyance tracks distanced from the alignment rollers to allow passage below the flow control portion of the correctly oriented preforms and block the longitudinal end.

The present disclosure provides systems, methods and assemblies comprising one or more tapered feed rolls. Tapered feed rolls may be used to change the rate and direction of workpiece travel along a processing line while retaining the workpieces in sequential order. Routing workpiece flow with tapered feed rolls may allow the workpieces to be tracked along one or more processing lines, and may reduce the operational space required for workpiece processing.

The disclosure relates to a conveyor device that comprises a conveyor belt with a conveying strand for conveying bulk material and a return strand. The conveying strand has a conveying surface on which a material flow is running whose feed rate is given by the product of a linear velocity of the conveying strand and a conveying cross-section of the material flow. The disclosure is characterized by a variable flow limiting device that is movable between a first position and a second position. The conveying cross-section downstream of the flow limiting device is smaller in the second position than in the first position.

In certain embodiments, a system may include at least one optical sensor configured to capture optical data associated with a waste product and a processor coupled to the at least one optical sensor. The processor may be configured to determine information about the waste product based on the optical data and to selectively direct the waste product to a selected destination in response to determining the information.

In certain embodiments, a system may include at least one optical sensor configured to capture optical data associated with a waste product and a processor coupled to the at least one optical sensor. The processor may be configured to determine information about the waste product based on the optical data and to selectively direct the waste product to a selected destination in response to determining the information.