A discharge apparatus for an article handling system receives a group of articles in a facewise stacked condition and delivering the group of articles to an outfeed apparatus wherein the articles are arranged in a continuous flow. The discharge apparatus comprises a first stage station wherein groups of articles are received; an elongate discharge station having an incoming end and an outgoing end, the outgoing end being adjacent an outfeed apparatus, and the incoming end being spaced apart from the first stage station. An article carrying lane extends from the first stage station through the discharge station. A shuttle is bidirectionally movable between the first stage station and the discharge station for transporting a group of articles along the article carrying lane from the first stage station to the discharge station and returning to the first stage station to receive a subsequent group of articles. A discharge carriage is bidirectionally movable between the incoming end and the outgoing end of the discharge station for advancing articles along the article carrying lane to the outfeed apparatus in a continuous flow. Operating control operates the shuttle to transport a leading end of a group of articles into engagement with a trailing end of articles previously transported to the discharge station to make up a continuous flow of articles in the discharge station and thereafter operates the discharge carriage for advancing the articles toward the outgoing end of the discharge station.

A discharge apparatus for an article handling system receives a group of articles in a facewise stacked condition and delivers the group of articles to an outfeed apparatus wherein the articles are arranged in a continuous flow. The discharge apparatus comprises a first stage station wherein groups of articles are received; an elongate discharge station having an incoming end and an outgoing end, the outgoing end being adjacent an outfeed apparatus, and the incoming end being spaced apart from the first stage station. An article carrying lane extends from the first stage station through the discharge station. A shuttle is bidirectionally movable between the first stage station and the discharge station for transporting a group of articles along the article carrying lane from the first stage station to the discharge station and returning to the first stage station to receive a subsequent group of articles. A discharge carriage is bidirectionally movable between the incoming end and the outgoing end of the discharge station for advancing articles along the article carrying lane to the outfeed apparatus in a continuous flow. Operating control operates the shuttle to transport a leading end of a group of articles into engagement with a trailing end of articles previously transported to the discharge station to make up a continuous flow of articles in the discharge station and thereafter operates the discharge carriage for advancing the articles toward the outgoing end of the discharge station.

Article hold up apparatus is provided for use with an elongate lane for transporting a plurality of articles received in a facewise nested condition from a first location at one end of the lane along the lane until a leading end of the articles reaches an opposite end of the lane, for retaining a leading one of the articles in a substantially coaxial facewise nested orientation with respect to the others of the articles for thereby retaining the articles being transported along the lane substantially in a facewise nested condition. The article hold up apparatus comprises air directing structure extending substantially the length of the elongate lane for directing air in a direction generally opposite a direction of travel of the articles along the lane.

A new and improved automated workload balancer for automatic regalating a flow of articles between a first work station whereat a plurality of strings of articles are produced at a first variable cyclic operating rate, and a second downstream work station whereat an operation is performed on the plurality of strings of produced articles at a second variable cyclic operating rate, such that at least one of the work stations may continue in uninterrupted operation and at a desired operating rate when the rate of operation of the work station is temporarily varied or interrupted.

An improved automated workload balancing apparatus is described including an expanded coplanar transfer station having an inbound accumulating area, an outbound accumulating area and at least one outer storage placement and retrieval area linearly aligned along a longitudinally extending transfer axis. A pickup transfer head is reciprocatably translatable along the transfer axis to regulate overall flow of groups of articles through the balancer device. In accordance with the preferred embodiment, preformed groups are moved uphill or downhill into and out of the inbound and outbound accumulating areas, respectively for improved article management. Front and rear holding devices are included to further provide enhanced article management. In an especially preferred embodiment, angled infeed and angled outfeed track segments are rotatable into and out of position in the transfer station to position the groups for pickup and transfer before sending them on for further processing steps.