Patent ID: 7408124

Claim:
A conveyor system comprising: a pair of main conveyor belts having confronting inner stretches oriented horizontally and vertically adjacent one another parallel to a transport direction and extending through a weighing station, the belts being spaced to grip vertical sides of a succession of objects; means for advancing the main belts and displacing the objects between them in the direction through the weighing station; a weighing conveyor belt having a horizontally oriented and upwardly directed stretch between and underneath the main belts at the station; means for deflecting the main-belt stretches apart at an upstream location immediately upstream of the weighing belt, for holding the main-belt stretches apart in the weighing station, and for deflecting the main-belt stretches back together at a downstream location immediately downstream of the weighing belt for releasing objects gripped by the main belts and setting them to rest with their full weights on the weighing belt in the weighing station and for gripping the objects again downstream of the weighing station with the main belts not touching the objects when they are on the weighing belt; drive means for advancing the weighing belt and thereby advancing the objects through the weighing station; and means associated with the weighing belt for weighing the objects on the weighing belt.