Patent ID: 8544631

Claim:
Apparatus for distributing articles within a stream of articles in a direction of transport, comprising: an infeed conveyor exhibiting plural conveyor lanes; a first discharge conveyor and a second discharge conveyor, each exhibiting plural conveyor lanes, wherein the first discharge conveyor, the infeed conveyor and the second discharge conveyor define a transport plane; a region of overlap is formed by the arrangement of the infeed conveyor and the first and second discharge conveyor in the direction of transport; and a distribution element is displaceable essentially transverse to the direction of transport, so that a stream of incoming and neighboring articles on the transport plane is distributed onto the first discharge conveyor and the second discharge conveyor, in the direction of transport; wherein the distribution element is formed by a first guiding rail and a second guiding rail arranged at an acute angle with respect to each other and thus forming a cone shaped end directed opposite the direction of transport.