Patent ID: 7731011

Claim:
An apparatus for changing the direction of travel of paper, board, or other fibre reels, comprising: a turntable rotatable about a vertical axis of rotation, the turntable having an upper surface, a diameter of the upper surface being sufficient to cover a pit in which the turntable operates; a conveyor mounted on the turntable and capable of receiving a reel from a bringing conveyor bringing the reel to the turntable, moving the reel on the turntable, and feeding the reel to a receiving conveyor, the conveyor of the turntable having a length less than a greatest width of a reel; bearings for rotating the turntable around its axis of rotation; means for rotating the turntable on the bearings; and means for lifting the conveyor of the turntable, without also lifting the upper surface of the turntable, above a level of the bringing and receiving conveyors and for allowing the conveyor of the turntable to be rotated on the bearings while the conveyor of the turntable is in a lifted position.