Apparatus for conveying flat goods one side of which bears a liquid layer

An apparatus for conveying flat goods such as plates, sheets, films and the like one side of which goods bears a liquid layer to be solidified, said apparatus comprising

• conveyor means movable along an ascending and a descending stretch as well as along a substantially horizontal stretch therebetween, and
• carrier means connected to said conveyor means and being adapted for carrying said goods always in horizontal position while conveying them along said stretches;
• wherein said conveyor means comprises
• a single endless first chain composed of links and joints and adapted for moving in a plane along said ascending and descending stretches and along an upper and a lower direction-reversing stretch, from one of the two former stretches to the other, respectively;
• and
• transverse conveying means for traveling over said substantially horizontal stretch;
• and wherein a first group of said carrier means consist of fork-shaped carriers comprising each a carrier bar and a number of prongs mounted on said carrier bar and protruding at a right angle from the latter, each of said carrier bars being attached in such a manner to a link of said first chain, outwardly of, and parallel with, the plane in which said first chain runs, that the fork-shaped carrier remains in horizontal position while being transported by said first chain along said ascending and descending stretches;
• and
• said carrier means further comprise at least one transversely conveyed fork-shaped carrier of similar construction as the carriers of said first group, the carrier bar of each such transversely conveyed carrier being engaged by said transverse conveying means for movement therewith, and
• parallelogram-guiding means associated with said transverse conveying means and said at least one transversely conveyed carrier for guiding the latter carrier in an elliptic movement, thereby maintaining the same at all times in horizontal position;
• said transversely conveyed carrier being so arranged with regard to said carriers of said first group, as well as the kinematics of said at least one transversely conveyed carrier and all carriers of said first group being so adjusted with respect to each other, that the prongs of the carriers of said first group, on the one hand, and the prongs of said at least one transversely conveyed carrier are staggered relative to each other, and that
• said at least one transversely conveyed carrier overtakes an ascending one of said carriers of said first group immediately before, and overtakes a descending one of these last-mentioned carriers immediately after, such carrier of said first group enters or leaves, respectively, said upper direction-reversing stretch,
• whereby flat goods resting on said ascending carrier are lifted off the latter by the upwardly overtaking transversely conveyed carrier, and whereby the same goods are re-deposited by said transversely conveyed carrier on to said descending carrier, of said first group, being overtaken in a downward direction.