Bread conveying apparatus

A bread conveying apparatus for conveying bread having a pair of wide faces and a narrow face connecting the pair of wide faces, the narrow face having a length less than the pair of wide faces, the bread conveying apparatus comprising:

• a conveyor device that has a pair of rotating bodies, a plurality of containers on which one of the pair of wide faces of the bread is placed, and an endless revolving body wound around the pair of rotating bodies, the plurality of containers being separated from each other and being mounted on the endless revolving body, and that conveys the containers in a conveying direction, the plurality of containers including:
• an upstream edge portion extending radially towards the endless revolving body in a front view and being located at an upstream side in the conveying direction;
• and
• a downstream edge portion including a regulating portion extending radially outwardly relative to the endless revolving body and a projecting portion extending radially toward the endless revolving body, the regulating portion retaining movement of the bread toward a downstream side in the conveying direction;
• a guide member supporting an other one of the pair of wide faces and disposed on a downstream end portion side of the conveyor device in the conveying direction to restrain movement of the bread toward the downstream side in the conveying direction in cooperation with the downstream edge portion, the downstream edge portion being placed at the downstream side in the conveying direction;
• a chute member that supports the other one of the pair of wide faces of the bread conveyed by the conveyor device to make the other one of the pair of wide faces slide on the chute member and that discharges the bread to fall outside of the chute member;
• and
• a restraint release area which is a space defined by a lower end portion of the guide member placed at the downstream side in the conveying direction of the guide member and a chute end portion of the chute member, the chute end portion being closest to the lower end portion of the guide member,
• wherein, when the bread, in which the narrow face of the bread is restrained by the downstream edge portion and the other one of the pair of wide faces is restrained by the guide member, arrives at the restraint release area, restraint of the bread by the downstream edge portion and the guide member is released so that the other one of the pair of wide faces of the bread is transferred to and slided on the chute member to fail outside of the chute member.