Patent ID: 7921981

Claim:
Apparatus for conveying and arranging bakery products each having a width dimension, a length dimension greater than the width dimension, a bottom surface, and a top surface with curved edges, said apparatus comprising: a frame; an infeed conveyor on said frame for receiving and conveying the bakery products with said length dimensions in a variety of angular orientations relative to a conveying direction in which the bakery products are conveyed and with some of the bakery products inverted such that the top surfaces thereof are down; an upstream slide on said frame located to receive the bakery products from said infeed conveyor and having a plurality of spaced apart guide elements arranged to provide lanes between adjacent guide elements for receiving bakery products oriented with the length dimensions thereof generally parallel to said conveying direction, said upstream slide having a slide surface inclined downwardly away from said infeed conveyor for gravity feeding of the bakery products; an aligning conveyor on said frame having a plurality of spaced apart guides substantially aligned with said guide elements and located to receive between said guides the bakery products that are in said lanes, said guides each having an upper edge surface; a drive element on each of said upper edge surfaces, said drive elements on the upper edge surfaces of adjacent guides being driven at different speeds to turn misaligned bakery products delivered to said aligning conveyor with the length dimensions thereof offset substantially from said conveying direction, thereby turning such misaligned bakery products to allow dropping thereof between said guides; a conveyor mechanism on said aligning conveyor operable to convey bakery products between said guides in said conveying direction; a downstream slide on said frame located to receive the bakery products from said alignment conveyor and having a plurality of guide members substantially aligned with said guides to receive the bakery products between said guide members, said downstream slide having a slide surface inclined downwardly away from said aligning conveyor for gravity feeding of the bakery products; a rollover conveyor on said frame having a plurality of guide rails located with upstream end portions thereof substantially aligned with said guide members to receive the bakery products between said guide rails; and means for conveying the bakery products in said conveying direction between said upstream end portions of the guide rails, said guide rails having rollover portions located and arranged to interact with said curved edges of the inverted bakery products in a manner to roll said inverted bakery products over onto said bottom surfaces.