Patent ID: 7861847

Claim:
A depalletizer comprising: a first conveyor conveying a pallet layer in a first conveying direction, the pallet layer comprising a series of rows of packages; a second conveyor arranged end to end with the first conveyor and comprising a conveyor belt having upstream and downstream ends and positioning elements positioned at regular intervals between the upstream and downstream ends and actuated package-supporting rollers disposed between the positioning elements, wherein the rollers are actuated to rotate in the first conveying direction as the conveyor belt advances toward the downstream end to draw the pallet layer row by row from the first conveyor over the upstream end and accelerate each row atop the rollers in the first conveying direction to a positioning element to separate each row from a trailing row at the regular intervals; a third conveyor having first and second sides and first and second ends and arranged transverse to the second conveyor at the downstream end to receive a row of packages over the first side from the downstream end of the second conveyor and convey the row of packages toward the second end in a second conveying direction transverse to the first conveying direction; wherein the third conveyor comprises at least one conveyor belt advancing in the second conveying direction and having rollers on a first half width of the conveyor belt actuated to rotate in a first direction oblique to the second conveying direction to push packages toward an opposite second half width as the at least one conveyor belt advances in the second conveying direction and rollers on the second half width actuated to rotate in a second direction oblique to the second conveying direction to push packages toward the first half width as the at least one conveyor belt advances in the second conveying direction.