Patent ID: 6968937

Claim:
A method for transporting and buffering articles ( 2 ) comprising the steps of: providing a rail ( 5 ); providing a plurality of holding elements ( 1 ); transporting the holding elements ( 1 ) one behind the other along a stretch of the rail ( 5 ), wherein each holding element ( 1 ) holds an article ( 2 ) in a defined position, and wherein the holding elements ( 1 ) are conveyed in a conveying direction (F) along a conveying track defined by the stretch of rail ( 5 ), banking up the holding elements ( 1 ) during transport to form an accumulation store ( 12 ) upstream of a front banking-up point (P. 1 ), wherein the accumulation store ( 12 ) comprises, in addition to the front banking-up point (P. 1 ) and upstream thereof, a rear banking-up point (P. 2 ) and wherein the banked-up holding elements ( 1 ) have a defined minimum distance (d Min ) between one another, in the accumulation store ( 12 ), pre-forming groups of holding elements ( 15 ) between the front banking-up point (P. 1 ) and the rear banking-up point (P. 2 ), wherein each group comprises a plurality of holding elements ( 15 ), releasing the groups of holding elements ( 15 ) from the accumulation store ( 12 ), wherein in each released group the holding elements ( 15 ) are spaced apart the defined minimum distance (d Min ), and conveying away the released groups of the holding elements ( 15 ), and wherein the groups of the holding elements ( 1 ) pre-formed in the accumulation store, released from the accumulation store, and conveyed away from the accumulation store in succession comprise varying numbers of the holding elements ( 1 ), wherein a distance between the front banking-up point and the rear banking-up point (P. 1 and P. 2 ) corresponds to a length in the conveying direction of a group ( 15 ) to be released, and wherein, for pre-forming or releasing the groups, one of the banking-up points (P. 1 or P. 2 ) is stationary and the other banking-up point (P. 2 or P. 1 ) is displaced parallel to the conveying direction.