Conveyor having provision for discharging loads at an angle generally transverse to the line of travel or the conveyor

A conveyor system, comprising:

• an input article conveyor having an article conveying direction;
• an article transfer support adjacent and aligned in the conveying direction with said first article conveyor;
• diverter abutment means for engaging articles being moved onto said article transfer support by said first article conveyor and providing a component of force to said articles transverse to said article conveying direction;
• said diverter abutment means providing a stationary article surface generally lying within a vertical plane intersecting the conveying direction of said first article conveyor means at an acute angle;
• said article tranfer support having a plurality of first rollers mounted transversely of the conveying direction for rotation about axes generally parallel with each other;
• a plurality of second rollers mounted on each of said first rollers for rotation about axes transverse to the axes of said first rollers;
• and said second rollers being mounted around the periphery of said first rollers so that the upper-most ones of said second rollers have upper-most surfaces lying within a common article support plane spaced above the upper-most surface of said first rollers and being generally coplanar with the article supporting surface of said first article conveyor.