Machine with automatic transport of articles

An automatic article transport machine, wherein individual like compartments are moved along a conveyor path on a conveyor subdivided into unit lengths, which are each associated with one compartment, past processing stations, single articles respectively being present in some of said compartments and the other ones of said compartments being empty, said articles having one of two characteristics, either a characteristic corresponding to a certain norm or a characteristic differing from the certain norm;

• said machine comprising:
• a characteristic shift register associated with said conveyor path and having a plurality of storage units and an input;
• a clock associated with the conveyor, which transmits clock signals related to the advance of the conveyor to said shift register and thereby synchronizes the information contained in the shift register with the movement of said conveyor;
• a characteristic detection apparatus which is provided at a first position along the conveyor path, and is connected to said input of the shift register and detects the characteristics which the article moving past said apparatus possesses and transmits a corresponding electrical characteristic signal which is input into a storage unit of the shift register;
• and article sorting apparatus at a second position downstream from the first position along the conveyor path, the article sorting apparatus being connected to the shift register and, at the instant an article moves past said sorting apparatus, receives the associated characteristic signal from the associated storage unit of the shift register and correspondingly sorts the article;
• the shift register being connected to receive signals from a first article presence detectio apparatus, located near the characteristic detection apparatus, relating to the presence or absence of an article in each unit length of the conveyor;
• a second article presence detection apparatus being arranged near the location of the article sorting apparatus, and a logic circuit having a first input connected to the second article presence detection apparatus;
• means for connecting the storage units of the shift register containing information on the presence or absence of an article in a unit length of the conveyor to a second input of said logic circuit as the last-mentioned unit length of the conveyor moves past said second article presence detection apparatus;
• and said logic circuit transmitting a fault signal when a determination made by the second article presence detection apparatus differs from the content of the associated storage unit of the shift register.