Patent ID: 7178658

Claim:
An article store as a buffer zone between two processing arrangements, in particular between production and packaging, having an endless, guided pair of chairs on which gondolas, which are intended for temporarily storing the articles and are provided with shelves, are suspended for swinging action, having in each case one arrangement for respectively loading and unloading the shelves, and drive motors which serve for moving the pair of chains at a corresponding cycle frequency in a loading and an unloading regions, it being the case that the pair of chains has a horizontal section with a horizontally displaceable chain-deflecting means, and also, in order to avoid chain sagging, both an upper chain strand and a lower chain strand of this horizontal chain section are guided over their entire length by means of a chain-supporting profile which runs beneath the relevant chain in each case, characterized in that the upper chain-supporting profile of the horizontal chain section is subdivided into a plurality of moveably mounted segments which, depending on the current position of the displaceable chain-deflecting means, can be displaced out of their original position such that they thus provide the pair of chains moving upwards in the deflecting region with a gap through which the pair of chains can cross over the plane of the upper chain-supporting profile, after which it then rests on the same once more.