Patent ID: 7219521

Claim:
A product handling system for longitudinally receiving product lengths from a rolling mill, and for transferring said product lengths to an underlying receiver, said system comprising: a support structure defining a pair of stationary inverted first channels with downwardly facing open sides; at least one cylindrical drum interposed between each of said first channels and said receiver, said drums being rotatable about their axes and having drum surfaces arranged to close the open sides of the respective first channels, said drum surfaces being interrupted by second channels, with said first and second channels and drum axes being arranged in a parallel relationship; delivery means for alternately delivering sequential product lengths longitudinally into one and then the other of said first channels; and drive means for rotating said drums, the arrangement of said drum surfaces and said second channels relative to said first channels being such that as a result of drum rotation, the thus delivered product lengths are each sequentially: (i) temporarily retained in said first channels by the rotating drum surfaces; (ii) deposited from said first channels into said second channels when said second channels are rotated into radial alignment and communication with said first channels; and (iii) downwardly transferred from said second channels to said receiver when said second channels are rotated to a discharge positions over said receiver.