High speed straight line weighing system

A high speed container placement apparatus, comprising

• a conveyer movable along a straight-line path at a constant speed,
• plural containers disposed on said conveyer in a regularly spaced apart relationship,
• at least one group of processing units disposed in a regularly spaced apart relationship along at least one straight-line path parallel to said conveyer,
• each of said processing units including a guide means for engaging a container on said conveyer and having a stationary axis means about which said guide means rotate, and a stationary receiving means for receiving said container, and
• variable speed drive means for said guide means of said group of processing units for driving said guide means to 1) arrive at momentary stops, 2) arrive at a momentary maximum speed during each half cycle of rotary travel of said guide means and 3) accelerate just before and decelerate just after said momentary maximum speed said guide means, whereby a given number of said containers are simultaneously moved by said guide means for said group of processing units from said conveyer to said receiving means for said group of processing units and back again to said conveyer.

A method of high speed placement of containers, comprising the steps of

• transporting a plural number of containers continuously at a constant speed on a straight-line conveyer in a regularly spaced apart relationship,
• transferring simultaneously at least one group of said containers in respective circular paths about respective stationary axe to spaced apart stationary processing stations parallel to said conveyer,
• maintaining said group of containers at said processing stations for a given period of time in order to process said containers, and
• transferring simultaneously said group of containers in respective circular paths about respective stationary axes back to said conveyer after the elapse of said given period of time for processing said group of containers at said processing stations.