Rotationally indexed article support for a conveyor system having an alignment station

Abstract

An article support assembly () is adapted for movement by a conveyor along a path of conveyance. The article support assembly () includes a trolley () for engagement by the conveyor and a shackle () configured to support an article, and rotatable with respect to the trolley. A turning block () is associated with the shackle (), and rotation of the turning block with respect to the trolley () causes corresponding rotation of the shackle relative to the trolley. Yieldable indexing features () are operatively arranged between the trolley () and the turning block () to define at least a first and a second incremental rotational position or orientation for the shackle (). The yieldable indexing features () of the article support assembly () are biased into yieldable engagement by magnetic repelling forces. A conveyor system for conveying articles along processing stations is adapted to include the article support assembly () and comprises a turning station (A,B,C,D) for giving a predetermined rotational orientation to the shackle () with respect to the trolley ().