Spherical sorting rollers are arranged in rows transversely of an article conveyance path, and line shafts, which are connected to a drive source and are rotated thereby, are disposed sideways in parallel with the rows of the sorting rollers. The spherical outer peripheral surfaces of the spherical sorting rollers and the line shafts are brought into abutment with each other to drive the sorting rollers simultaneously. The spherical sorting rollers are each supported individually by a roller supporting frame. The roller supporting frame can turn at a predetermined position about a vertical axis which passes through the center of each roller. The roller supporting frames are turned in a sorting direction simultaneously by a swing mechanism, whereby an article which has been conveyed up to a sorting position is sent out sideways from above the article conveyance path. The sorting and discharging device provided is capable of effecting a sorting operation efficiently with little wear of sorting rollers and little power loss.
There are disclosed a conveying apparatus and a conveying system in which a force is efficiently transmitted to an article so as to smoothly convey the article in an arbitrary direction. In each of feed portions 15 provided at a conveying apparatus 10, 11 of the invention, a twist gear 34 is mounted on a twist base 16, and is disposed below feed rollers 17, and therefore the degree of freedom of the configurations of the twist gear 34 and feed rollers 17 are higher as compared with a conventional construction in which a feed roller is provided within a twist gear. Therefore, a compact design of the twist gear 34 can be achieved, and also the feed portions 15 and 15 can be disposed closer to each other as compared with the conventional construction. And besides, a large-size design of the feed rollers 17 can be achieved, so that an area of contact of the feed rollers 17 with the article can be increased. As a result, the force can be efficiently transmitted to the article 90 from each of feed portions so as to smoothly convey the article in an arbitrary direction.
A diverter system for diverting articles being conveyed along the diverter system includes a plurality of diverter wheels arranged between opposite sidewalls of the diverter system. The diverter wheels are rotatably driven by a motorized roller and a plurality of drive members or bands reeved around the motorized roller and respective ones of the diverter wheels. The diverter wheels are steerable in response to pivotal or rotational movement of a drive gear that engages a gear plate of at least one of the wheels. The resulting pivotal movement of the at least one wheel causes a translational movement of a rack member extending along the row of diverter wheels which, in turn, causes a corresponding pivotal movement of the other wheels engaged with the rack member.
