Sorting apparatus for food items

Apparatus for arranging conveyed food items into one or more parallel lines of uniformly spaced food items, comprising:

• a travelling web conveyor having a planar conveying surface for receiving food items to be conveyed and sorted, said food items having a thickness which is relatively smaller than a length or width dimension thereof;
• a plurality of indexing rotary members disposed above said conveying surface for peripherially contacting and uniformly spacing said food items while said food items are being advanced by said conveyor;
• each of said rotary members having a plurality of spokes extending therefrom and respectively extending to aat least said conveying surface and each of said spokes being resiliently urged into contact with said planar conveying surface, said spokes having a smaller horizontal velocity, at said conveying surface, than said conveying surface;
• means for rotating said rotary members, said spokes being arranged such that a pair of spokes on one said rotary member may be in simultaneous contact with said planar conveying surface such that one spoke contacts said surface before a rotationally preceeding spoke leaves said surface, and said spokes of pairs of adjacent rotary members having a pitch in the lateral direction of said conveying surface which is less than a diameter of one of said food items, whereby a pair of said spokes substantially straddle one of said food items;
• and
• guide means for guiding said food items in at least one parallel line to said rotary members.