Patent ID: 7032737

Claim:
A conveying apparatus for moving open containers along a predetermined path in a conveying direction, comprising: a first elongate conveying means extending along said predetermined path on one side thereof and a second elongate conveying means extending along said predetermined path along another side thereof opposite to said one side, said first and second conveying means comprising means for grasping said containers to be moved along said predetermined path; each of said first and second conveying means comprising a plurality of gripping element means; each of said first and second conveying means comprising at least one guiding rail means, said at least one guiding rail means engaging said plurality of gripping element means to guide said gripping element means for moving along said guiding rail means in said conveying direction; each gripping element means of said plurality of gripping element means comprising at least two lip means having a mutual distance as seen in said conveying direction and are bent backwards opposite to said conveying direction to be elastically resilient both in a direction running crosswise to said conveying direction and in a direction opposite to said conveying direction; and each one of said gripping element means of said plurality of gripping element means of said first conveying means and an oppositely located gripping element means of said plurality of gripping element means of said second conveying means constituting a gripping means pair adapted to convey and guide one of said containers along said predetermined path in said conveying directions, wherein the distance between facing lips means of adjacent gripping element means essentially corresponds to the distance between two lip means of an individual gripping element means along said predetermined path.