Coil handling apparatus and system

Abstract

An apparatus and system is disclosed for receiving upstanding cylindrical product coils from a coil forming station at the delivery end of a rolling mill, and for transporting the coils along a path along which additional processing operations are performed on the coils at different locations. The apparatus includes a plurality of separately driven and independently operable roller table modules which are aligned to form longitudinally extending roller conveyor avenues. Transfer carriages are provided to laterally shift certain or these roller table modules from one to another of the longitudinally extending roller conveyor avenues. The drives for the roller table modules and the transfer carriages are all located beneath the transport level defined by the table rollers, the latter being located approximtely at the floor level of the coil handling area. Smaller coils may be carried directly on the rollers of the roller table modules, while larger coils are preferably carried on specially designed pallets.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.