Patent ID: 8651264

Claim:
A transport device for the transport of articles, comprising: a plurality of article transport means configured as single conveyor belts, each single conveyor belt being assigned to a lane carrier; a separating element for each single conveyor belt providing a plurality of single lanes for transporting single articles, each of the single lanes having a width, each of the articles being consecutively arranged and transported in the single lanes, adjacent single lanes being separated by one of the separating elements; at least one displacing means for adjusting the respective widths of the single lanes in a transverse manner to a transport direction of the transport device; at least two adjacent single lanes form a group of lanes with a width; and at least one further displacing means for adjusting the respective widths of the groups of lanes in a transverse manner with respect to the transport direction; and wherein the at least one displacing means and the at least one further displacing means are arranged with respect to each other so that the respective widths of different single lanes within a respective group of lanes is adjustable to be the same and adjustable to be different and so that the respective groups of the single lanes formed in this manner are displaceable relatively, further comprising the lane carriers, each of the single conveyor belts resting on one of the lane carriers, wherein each of the separating elements is connected to one of the lane carriers, some of the lane carriers being movable by the at least one displacing means to adjust the respective widths of the single lanes, others of the lane carriers being movable by the at least one further displacing means to adjust the respective widths of the groups of lanes.