Conveyor device for inspecting containers and transporting them to selected destinations

A device for handling containers, e.g., cans made of glass, plastic, wood or metal or bottles of glass or plastic, wherein the containers with the aid of a conveyor are conveyed in lying position past a detector in order to inspect characteristic data about the containers, and means which, on the basis of such data, determines how the containers are to be handled subsequently, e.g., sorted for removal from the conveyor, or conveyed further to the downstream end of the conveyor, and wherein the conveyor has first and second rotatory roller units, a first driving motor being connected to a first of the roller units to cause rotation thereof about its axis of rotation and thereby rotation of the second roller unit about its axis of rotation, by movement of belts or bands which extend continuously about and between the roller units, characterised in

• that a plurality of adjacently disposed, continuous elastic belts or bands run in grooves on the roller units;
• that along a first and a second longitudinal side of the conveyor there are provided respectively a first and a second rotatable roll, wherein the rolls can be made to rotate with the aid of respective first and second roll driving motors about their longitudinal axis in the same direction of rotation, and where the rolls on co-ordinated movement are moveable in the horizontal and vertical directions relative to the conveyor, whereby the rolls are displaceable to a first position wherein they lie substantially laterally outward relative to the container transport path of the conveyor and are spaced apart at first distance, a second position wherein they are located above the conveyor and displaced towards each other so as to be spaced apart at a second distance which is smaller than the width of the conveyor, and a third position wherein the rolls are spaced apart at a third distance which is smaller than or equal to said second distance;
• that the detector is a bar code reader located at a distance above the conveyor;
• and that
• that at a distance above the conveyor there is also provided a motor-driven sideways displacer for the containers, wherein the displacer consists of a laterally displaceable suspension on which is secured a substantially downward directed pair of plates, wherein the plates are spaced apart at a distance at least equal to the width of the conveyor.