Laitram, LLC

Felix H Lapeyre, Iii

Mark B Costanzo

Joseph M DePaso

Eric M Pressler

A conveyor having a retractable stop providing a nonsliding contact surface to the leading faces of conveyed articles to prevent damage to the faces of the articles. One version of such a stop has a contact surface defined by the peripheries of rollers that rotate on the accumulated articles as the stop moves from a blocking position accumulating articles on the conveyor to a retracted position releasing accumulated articles to advance downstream along the conveyor.

Conveyor with a gentle retractable stop

Methods for singulating laterally abutting conveyed articles in a conveyor (). The method includes separating laterally abutting articles by means of a first conveyor section () having in-line rollers () or oblique rollers rotating at a first speed in a conveying direction () and a second laterally adjacent conveyor section () having oblique rollers () rotating at a second speed in a direction causing articles atop the oblique rollers () in the second section () to diverge from articles atop the rollers in the first section. Differing the roller speeds helps the abutting articles to increase their separation in the conveying direction.

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New Orleans, LA, United States of America

Felix H Lapeyre, Iii