In one aspect, a transfer guard member having a body for being positioned in a gap intermediate conveying surfaces, an upper portion of the body for spanning the gap and outer portions of the upper body for slidingly engaging the conveying surfaces, and a pair of spaced, resilient legs having distal end portions for resiliently and slidingly engaging the conveying surfaces. In another aspect, a transfer guard member having a body and at least one attachment member of the body configured for being detachably fixed to a mounting bar. The body has at least one recess adjacent the attachment member for receiving at least one attachment member of another transfer guard member fixed to the mounting bar so that upper transfer surfaces of the attachment members are adjacent one another.

Roller conveyors can only safely convey articles up to a certain width to downstream conveyors without jamming. The present invention utilizes at least one and preferably a plurality of jam prevention diverter wheels disposed at a selected angle between adjacent rollers of a conveyor with a portion of the diverter wheels extending above the surface of the conveyor rollers to contact items and limit the width of items that can pass through without jamming the conveyor. The diverter wheels are rotated with power mechanically derived from the main powered conveyor rollers. A portion of diverter wheels extend above the skewed roller conveyor surface a selected distance and at a selected angle to contact conveyed articles and only allow items up to a certain size to pass diverting wide items or misaligned items having a width wider than desired for passing through to a downstream conveyor. Jam prevention is the point. If an item width exceeds a given threshold width the diverter wheels come into contact with the term and engage the item pulling the item away from the conveyor stream.

In one aspect, a transfer guard member having a body for being positioned in a gap intermediate conveying surfaces, an upper portion of the body for spanning the gap and outer portions of the upper body for slidingly engaging the conveying surfaces, and a pair of spaced, resilient legs having distal end portions for resiliently and slidingly engaging the conveying surfaces. In another aspect, a transfer guard member having a body and at least one attachment member of the body configured for being detachably fixed to a mounting bar. The body has at least one recess adjacent the attachment member for receiving at least one attachment member of another transfer guard member fixed to the mounting bar so that upper transfer surfaces of the attachment members are adjacent one another.

In one aspect, a transfer guard member having a body for being positioned in a gap intermediate conveying surfaces, an upper portion of the body for spanning the gap and outer portions of the upper body for slidingly engaging the conveying surfaces, and a pair of spaced, resilient legs having distal end portions for resiliently and slidingly engaging the conveying surfaces. In another aspect, a transfer guard member having a body and at least one attachment member of the body configured for being detachably fixed to a mounting bar. The body has at least one recess adjacent the attachment member for receiving at least one attachment member of another transfer guard member fixed to the mounting bar so that upper transfer surfaces of the attachment members are adjacent one another.

In one aspect, a transfer guard member having a body for being positioned in a gap intermediate conveying surfaces, an upper portion of the body for spanning the gap and outer portions of the upper body for slidingly engaging the conveying surfaces, and a pair of spaced, resilient legs having distal end portions for resiliently and slidingly engaging the conveying surfaces. In another aspect, a transfer guard member having a body and at least one attachment member of the body configured for being detachably fixed to a mounting bar. The body has at least one recess adjacent the attachment member for receiving at least one attachment member of another transfer guard member fixed to the mounting bar so that upper transfer surfaces of the attachment members are adjacent one another.

An apparatus that conveys pellet-shaped articles may include a hopper that receives a quantity of the pellet-shaped articles. The hopper may include one or more openings to direct a flow of air into the hopper to dislodge jamming or bridging of pellet-shaped articles within the hopper.

Roller conveyors can only safely convey articles up to a certain width to downstream conveyors without jamming The present invention utilizes at least one and preferably a plurality of jam prevention diverter wheels disposed at a selected angle between adjacent rollers of a conveyor with a portion of the diverter wheels extending above the surface of the conveyor rollers to contact items and limit the width of items that can pass through without jamming the conveyor. The diverter wheels are rotated with power mechanically derived from the main powered conveyor rollers. A portion of diverter wheels extend above the skewed roller conveyor surface a selected distance and at a selected angle to contact conveyed articles and only allow items up to a certain size to pass diverting wide items or misaligned items having a width wider than desired for passing through to a downstream conveyor. Jam prevention is the point. If an item width exceeds a given threshold width the diverter wheels come into contact with the term and engage the item pulling the item away from the conveyor stream.

In one aspect, a transfer guard member having a body for being positioned in a gap intermediate conveying surfaces, an upper portion of the body for spanning the gap and outer portions of the upper body for slidingly engaging the conveying surfaces, and a pair of spaced, resilient legs having distal end portions for resiliently and slidingly engaging the conveying surfaces. In another aspect, a transfer guard member having a body and at least one attachment member of the body configured for being detachably fixed to a mounting bar. The body has at least one recess adjacent the attachment member for receiving at least one attachment member of another transfer guard member fixed to the mounting bar so that upper transfer surfaces of the attachment members are adjacent one another.

In one aspect, a transfer guard member having a body for being positioned in a gap intermediate conveying surfaces, an upper portion of the body for spanning the gap and outer portions of the upper body for slidingly engaging the conveying surfaces, and a pair of spaced, resilient legs having distal end portions for resiliently and slidingly engaging the conveying surfaces. In another aspect, a transfer guard member having a body and at least one attachment member of the body configured for being detachably fixed to a mounting bar. The body has at least one recess adjacent the attachment member for receiving at least one attachment member of another transfer guard member fixed to the mounting bar so that upper transfer surfaces of the attachment members are adjacent one another.

A method for feeding articles including the steps of: feeding transversally, by means of a first conveyor, a succession of parallel rows of articles to a transfer area; moving longitudinally, using a second conveyor, a succession of rows of articles from the transfer area; sending at least one row of articles, coming from the first conveyor, to a storage unit whilst the row of articles is fed transversely, preferably perpendicularly, to the row; transferring the row of articles inside the storage unit, positioning said row of articles in a longitudinal direction at an outfeed section of the storage unit; extracting longitudinally portions in sequence of said row, portions formed preferably by one or more articles, from the storage unit feeding said portions of row to the transfer area.