Patent ID: 7681713

Claim:
An article conveying device in which a plurality of rotary wheels each provided with a plurality of grippers gripping articles equidistantly in a circumferential direction are disposed and in a delivery position in which these rotary wheels are adjacent to each other, articles are delivered from grippers of an upstream side rotary wheel to grippers of a downstream side rotary wheel, comprising: retreating means switching the grippers provided at the downstream side rotary wheel between a use state in which the grippers receive articles from the upstream side rotary wheel and a retreat state in which the grippers do not interfere with the articles held by the upstream side rotary wheel; and control means controlling the retreating means, wherein when said upstream side rotary wheel abnormally stops, said control means controls said retreating means to switch at least the grippers of the downstream side rotary wheel, which are located in said delivery position, from the use state to the retreat state to prevent the grippers of the downstream side rotary wheel and the articles gripped by the grippers of the upstream side rotary wheel from interfering with one another, and rotation of the downstream side rotary wheel is continued to deliver the articles gripped by the grippers of the downstream side rotary wheel to a rotary wheel disposed further downstream.