Patent ID: 11878875
Assignee: nan
Field: Handling (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B | IPC B

Claim 15:
16. An apparatus for spacing apart articles, the apparatus comprising:
a conveyor for moving the articles therealong in a predetermined rectilinear path in a back to front direction;
a comb defining comb rear and front ends longitudinally spaced apart from each other, the comb including
a base; and
protrusions extending from the base longitudinally spaced apart from each other, each protrusion defining a respective free end opposed to the base, the protrusions defining recesses between adjacent ones of the protrusions, each recess defining a nadir, the nadirs being located along a rectilinear base line, the protrusions each defining a respective length between the free end and the base line;
wherein at least one pair of the protrusions flanking one of the recesses includes a longer protrusion and a shorter protrusion, the shorter and longer protrusions having different lengths, the shorter protrusion being in front of the longer protrusion;

the comb being mounted to a linear actuator with the base line substantially parallel to the conveyor, the linear actuator being operable to move the comb in a direction substantially perpendicular to the predetermined rectilinear path;
wherein, in operation, the articles are conveyed along the predetermined path and the comb is moved in a reciprocating motion by the linear actuator to engage successively subsets of the articles to space apart the articles within each subset.