An assembly plant, in particular for assembling motor vehicles, which permits design of final assembly of motor vehicles so that it is as flexible as possible in terms of space. A central elongated assembly hall is provided in which essentially automated assembly regions are provided and finger-like partial regions having essentially manual workplaces are provided projecting at a right angle from the longitudinal side. A change in the sequence in the manual regions can be accomplished easily by an extension of the finger-like partial regions at the head end.

A transport system for articles includes an upper conveyor and a lower conveyor, and an elevator having an elevator conveyor and movable in a vertical direction between a lower end position in which the elevator conveyor is in alignment with the lower conveyor, and an upper end position in which the elevator conveyor is in alignment with the upper conveyor. The transfer of the articles between the conveyors and the elevator conveyor is controlled by a control unit which cooperates with a signaling assembly including a first signaling member associated to one plane for indicating that the elevator has reached an upper trigger position during movement from the lower end position to the upper end position, and a second signaling member associated to the other plane for indicating that the elevator has reached a lower trigger position during movement from the upper end position to the lower end position.

A free flow conveyance system includes a plurality of linear conveyance apparatuses each having a plurality of unit conveyors linearly arranged, and a pivot conveyance apparatus having a unit conveyor which is arranged between the linear conveyance apparatuses being so arranged as to form a predetermined angle, wherein product sensors are arranged at the conveying-in side as well as at the conveying-out side of the respective unit conveyors of the linear conveyance apparatuses and the pivot conveyance apparatus, when a product is conveyed to a unit conveyor of the upstream side along the conveyance direction and product sensors of the unit conveyor become of the sensing-product state, in case respective product sensors of a unit conveyor of the downstream side along the conveyance direction are of the not-sensing-product state, these unit conveyors are driven respectively to convey the product, and when the product is consequently conveyed to the unit conveyor of the downstream side along the conveyance direction and conveying-out side product sensors thereof become of the sensing-product state, the respective adjacent unit conveyors are stopped, enabling free flow conveyance.

A belt tensioning apparatus for a combine or harvester header has a frame with two spaced apart longitudinal support members and at least one transverse member attached to each of the longitudinal support members. An end roller support bracket has two bracket extensions extending longitudinally and disposed to slidingly engage with bracket extension receivers attached to the longitudinal support members. A push rod is longitudinally oriented and slidingly mounted on the transverse member intermediate to the longitudinal support members. The push rod is attached to the end roller support bracket and mounted to have a retracted position and an extended position. An actuator is attached to the longitudinal support members and exerts a substantially uniform force to the push rod along a range of travel of the push rod between the retracted position and the extended position. The actuator may be a scissors assembly or a hydraulic cylinder.

A bi-directional package divert mechanism used for sorting mail and other packages and items into appropriate bins for future delivery. The mechanism includes a downward extending moving mechanism which is capable of moving items into one of two directions, both perpendicular to an original direction of travel. Sensors are provided which detect a position of the moving mechanism, items for moving and monitoring of other systems.