Patent ID: 7278530

Claim:
An apparatus for singulating products which are substantially round and supplied in bulk, said apparatus comprising: an endless feed conveyor belt on which the products are unloaded and are then supplied in a conveying direction T, an endless singulator conveyor, which follows said feed conveyor belt downstream, and which consists of two sections, V1, V2, with endless belts forming, substantially, a V-channel, the sections being located in substantially two planes, each respective plane being at an angle to a horizontal plane and intersecting along an intersecting line parallel to the conveying direction T, and at least one additional endless belt B 1 , B 2 , . . . , B(n−1) disposed on the side of one of the two said sections V 1 , V 2 , each additional belt being further to a side of said intersecting line and parallel to said one section, each additional belt being in substantially the same plane as said one section, and each additional belt running in the same direction T, Bn being provided further to a side than B(n−1), while the speed of said one section is greater than the speed of said at least one further endless belt, wherein the products, during conveying, are singulated and positioned substantially one behind the other in the direction of said intersecting line, and the products, thereupon, being transferred, one by one, from the V-channel to a processing apparatus.