Patent ID: 7857119

Claim:
A conveyor device for carrying out a method for grouping boxes for the formation of box trains on a conveyor device with an endless conveyor belt which conveys said boxes in Indian file in a corridor delimited by lateral guides in the form of rails, wherein the method comprises, after a box located at the head of the tile of a train has been immobilized by use of a downstream stop, offsetting transversely to a direction of conveyance of said boxes by said conveyor a last box of said train formed with respect to a first box of an upstream file on grouping standby, and introducing into the space thus released by said last box a stop, called an upstream stop, responsible for retaining said upstream file, starting from said first box on grouping standby, said conveyor device comprising: a downstream stop for forming a box train on a conveyor belt; a discontinuous lateral rail, which is set apart laterally over a length which corresponds at least to the longitudinal dimension of a box, thus forming a type of funnel in the region of the location of the last box of said train: means for offsetting said last box transversely to a longitudinal direction of said train by pushing said last box into said funnel, thus releasing a space sufficient for accommodating an upstream stop responsible for stopping boxes of an upstream file on grouping standby; and an upstream stop system arranged laterally on the side of a continuous rail, opposite the offset in the form of said funnel of said discontinuous lateral rail, which upstream stop system comprises an actual stop in the form of a hook, movable about an axis perpendicular to the plane of said conveyor belt of the boxes, which stop is operated by means of the jack type in order to cause said stop to pass from the retracted position into a position for stopping the boxes of said upstream file on grouping standby, wherein said hook includes a projecting part in the form of a fang that is arranged downstream of the entry of said funnel, at a distance d which is of the order of one third of the longitudinal dimension of said boxes arranged on said conveyor belt.