CA1275963C - Device for transporting semisolid goods, including loading and unloading thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

IN THE CANADIAN PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE

PATENT APPLICATION

entitled: A device for transporting semisolid goods, including loading and unloading thereof.

in the name of: Joël LUCAS
Alain DUPORTAIL

assignee: FRIGOFRANCE

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE

The device is particularly applicable to transporting unbaked loaves of French (28) or other bread, and comprises a moving belt whose portions situated substantially at the margins (6) thereof are guided along guide elements and which includes a plurality of bins (20) extending transversely side-by-side to receive said goods from above. The device makes use of a belt in which each edge is constituted by a chain (1, 2) comprising links (3) which are hinged by means of rods (6) extending transversely between the chains, each rod end being fixed (7, 8) to one link and passing freely through the associated link, preferably with longitudinal play (9) to enable the belt to turn corners. According to the invention, each cross member (19) from which the bins (20) are suspended is the horizontal mid portion of an arch (16) whose lateral riser portions (17, 18) are rigidly fixed to the selected rod (6) of the two chains.

Description

~2'7591~3 A DEVICE FOR TRANSPORTING SEMIS0LID G~ODS, INCLUDING LOADING
AND UNLO~DING THEREOF
The present invention relates to a device for transporting semisolid goods, including loading and unloading thereof, and more particularly to transporting bread, French bread, etc. in the form of unbaked dough while it is being deep frozen.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
An unbaked loaf of French bread, e.g. on leaving shaping rollers, is very long (up to 700 mm) and is of small diameter (between 20 mm and 25 mm). Such a loaf is very unstable and tends to deform by virtue of stress in the dough and on being transferred from one transportation means to another. In addition, it does not remain still, even when no stress is applied to it. As a resul-t it is practically never rectilinear even though that is the shape it ought to take up and re-tain.
Further, the dough is sticky so that any change in its position inevitably leads to i-t being deformed.
The difficulty is thus one of transporting such a loaf or other eguivalently semisolid item. In a par-ticular, but non-restricting application, the loaves are taken up by a conveyor belt running through a deep freeze along a rectilinear path or a path which is preferably wound in a spiral. The deep frozen ~'~ loaves delivered by the belt are extremely fragile and they break when being packed into bundles unless they are rectilinear.
In tunnal deep freezes having rectilinear conveyor belts passing therethrough, it is known to fit the belt with bins extending transversely in the plane of the belt.
A first drawback of this prior transport device is that it is applicable only to a rectilinear path, thereby requiring a ground plan of very large area. This would not be the case ifthe~belt of bins could follow a spiral path, since the installation could then be compac-t and require only a very limited ground plan area.
second drawback is that the semisolid goods are dropped a relatively long way when being loaded into the bins of the prior transport device and when being unloaded therefrom, and ; in an~ case the drop is big enough for the goods to be capabls - of deforming when uncooked and of breaking when deep frozen.

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Further, such rectilinear bin belts are of the sequential type in that instead of advancing con-tinuously, they advance intermittently.
In a known installa~ion, a continuously advancing food conveyor brings successive loaves of uncooked dough against a fixed abutment over the path of a sequentially advancing bin belt. A bin must come to rest beneath the abubment each time the abutment stops a loaf.
In another known embodiment, a con-tinuously advancing food conveyor delivers successive loaves of uncooked dough to a V or hopper having a shutter situated over a sequentially advancing bin belt. The shutter opens when a bin comes to rest immediately therebelow.
The third drawback of this prior transport device, and this is a ma~or drawback, results from the fact that the bin belt has to advance sequentially for loading purposes. In this respect, it should be recalled that such a rectilinear belt extends over about ~0 meters (m) and supports about one thousand loaves, so that in normal operation it must stop about 1800 times an hour. It is therefore clear that the reliabili-ty of the device is limited because of wear and jolting, that downtime for maintenance and adjustment is inevitably considerable, that the system is inaccurate and moves easily~
out of adjustment, etc.
Preferred embodiments of the present invention mitigate these drawbacks by proposing improvements enabling the bin belt to follow a spiral path, enabling said belt to advance continuously regardless of whether it follows a rectilinear path or a spiral path, and enabling semisolid goods to be loaded into the bins and to be unloaded therefrom with substantially no drop, i.e. they are put into place gently.
All the handling must be entirely automatic, in other words there must be no manual intervention on the goods.
To this end, a transport device in accordance with the invention comprises a moving belt like the elevator described - in British patent No. 521 312 in which portions situated ~ substantially at the margins thereof are guided along the . .
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length of guide elements, and which includes a plurality of bins extending transversely side-by-side in order to receive the said goods from above, the bins being suspended from cross-members supported at least by their portions at the margins o the belt and situated above the surface defined said portions in such a manner as -to form a belt having raised bins.
This prior transport device is applied, in accordance with the in~ention, to a special belt of the t~pe described in US
patent No. 3 225 898.
Each edge of this special belt is constituted by a chain comprising links which are hinged together by means of rods, each rod being fixed to one link and passing freely through the associated link. If the said belt is to follow a spiral path,. longitudinal play is provide~ between each rod and the link through which it passes reely.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the lnvention, each cross-member is the mid- -horizontal portion o~ an arch whose lateral riser portions are rigidly fixed to the selected rod of the two chains.
More precisely, the present invention provides a device ~ for transporting semisolid goods such as unbaked loaves of - French or other bread, and including loading and unloading said goods, the device including a moving belt comprising:
. mar~inal portions situated at or near to its margins, said marginal portions being are guided along guide elements;
~- a plurality of bins extending transversely side-by-side to receive said goods from above, said bins being suspended from cross members supported at leas-t by said marginal portions of the belt and situated above the surface defined by said marginal portions in order to constitute a belt of raised bins;
each edge of the belt being constituted by a chain comprising links which are hinged by means of rods extending : transversely between the chains;
each rod end being fixed to one link and.passing freely through the associated link, preferably with longitudinal play to enable the belt to turn corners; and .~:

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each cross member being constituted by a horizontal mid portion of an arch havin~ lateral riser portions which are rigidly fixed to a selected one o~ said rods.
By virtue of this special belt structure, the lateral riser portions are always perpendicular to the guide surface of the belt~ As a result, the shape o~ the bins is fully under control and even though the bins are ~lexible, the shape may be modified with precision simply by acting on the said guide surface.
A continuously running belt having raised bins co~operates with a loader device which receives the semisolid goods under gravity and which places them successively in the continuously running bins, with the loading device being actuated by a control device controlled by the speed o~ the belt and connected to a trigger circuit which performs the AND function and which receives pulses from a detector for detecting goods in the loading device and a detector for detecting the passage o~ one of the riser portions of each bin-supporting cross-member.
In a first embodiment, the loading device comprises the following items above the bins and taken in the direction of bin travel: a hopper for receiving semisolid goods, the hopper having a downstream wall sloping slightly relative to a vertical transverse plane in a downwards and an upstream direction therefrom, and the hopper having a shutter situated closest to the bins and connected for the purpose o moving upstream to an actuator member under the control of the above-mentioned control device.
The hopper may have a downwardly sloping upstream wall - extending to the downstream wall, said upstream wall being pivota}ly mounted and connected to the above-mentioned ac-tuator member in order to constitute the shutter.
Otherwise, the hopper may have a downwardly sloping upstream wall delimiting, in conjunction with the downs-tream wall, a delivery opening, said opening being closed by a sliding door connected to the above-mentioned actuator member.
In a second embodiment, the loading device comprises a rotor mounted to rotate about a transverse axis and connected -, to a rotar~ drive device under the control of the above-mentioned control device, said rotor delimiting peripheral concave cells which, when they arrive successively in a delivery position, receive a semisolid item under gravity and direct it towards a wall situated downstream from the rotor (downstream in the direction of bin displacement) which rotor rotates to cause the cells to move in -the opposite direction to the bins with said downstream wall sloping slightly relative to a ~ertical transverse plane in a downwards direction and in an upstream direction.
Regardless of which embodiment is selected, at least the downstream wall may be connected to an actuator member under the control of the above-mentioned control device for the purpose of enabling the downstream wall to accompany the bins downs-tream when the hopper opens.
Also, in order to reduce the height through which semi-solid goods are dropped, the ~uide elements of the raised bin belt have upwardly projecting convex portions facing the delivery opening of the loadin~ device or the reception area of an unloading device in such a manner that when the riser portions of the two support cross-members adjacent to each bin passover said convex portions they diverge upwardly, thereby stretching and flattening the intervening bin and bringing it closer to said opening.
In order to straighten out a semisolid item, the guide elements of the raised bin belt include concave portions with an upwardly directed hollow downstream from the delivery opening of the loading device so that as the riser portions of the two support cross-members adjacent to each bin pass over said concave portions, the risers converge upwardly tending to ~lose the intervening bin on itself.
Each ~uide element may then include a bottom or top roll in each convex or concave portion of the path and interposed between bottom or top rail elements mounted loose and co-operating with respective top or bottom rail elements situatedon either side.

~27591~3 BXIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Embodiments of the invention are described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Figure 1 is a plan view from above showing a spiral belt having a device in accordance with the inven-tion applied - thereto, said plan view being taken on line I-I of Figure 2;
Figu~e 2 is a side elevati~n taken along arrow f of Figure l;
Figure 3 is a diagrammatic cross-section on line III-III
of Figure l;
Figure 4 is a fragmentary perspective view on a larger ~ scale showing a few links of a chain, transverse rods, and a : portion of an arch, with the bins removed to facilitate understanding -the drawing;
Figure 5 is a fragmentary view similar to Figure 3 and relating to variant guidance means;
Figures 6 to 9 are diagrammatic elevations showing several different embodiments of a loading device co-operating, in accordance with the invention, with the bins of the belts; and Figure 10 is à view similar to Figures 6 to 9, showing one embodiment of an unloading device co-operating, in accordance with the invention, with the bins of the belt.
MORE DETAILED DESCRIPTION
As can be seen clearly in Figures 1 to 4, a transport : device in accordance with the invention is an adaptation of a known moving spiral belt, in particular as described in US
patent No.3 225 898, and this belt is used to convey unbaked loaves of French bread inside a compac-t deep freeze enclosure.
The belt comprises two side chains 1 and 2 having identical links 3 which partially interfit with one another and wh:ch are hinged together in pairs relative to one another. In the examples shown in Figures 1 and 4, each link 3 is in the : form of a strip folded into a symmetrical U-shape having : branches 4 integrally formed with a web 5, with the branches being sinuous to form a narrow closed head portion 4t and a wider open oot portion 4p, said portions being interconnected by an intermediate portion 4i. The branches 4 of the foot ` portion 4p of one link 3.n of the chain 1 are connected to the -. . . ~ :

7 ~275~3 branches 4 of the foot portion 4p of the corresponding link 3.n of the chain 2 by a transverse rod 6 whose ends are welded at 7 and 8 onto said branches. Also, the foot portions 4p of the links 3.n under considera-tion in the chains 1 and 2 are fitted over the head portions 4t of the upstream adjacent links 3.n+1 of said chains, taking the direction F of belt movement when drive traction is applied thereto as the reference direction.
Further, the above-mentioned rod 6 of link 3.n passes through slots 9 provided through the intermediate and head portions 4i and 4t of the link 3~n~1, whereas the slots 9 through the link 3.n have the rod 6 of the downstream downstream link 3.n-1 passing therethrough. This provides a degree of longitudinal play at the hinges between successive pairs of links. This play allows curves to shorten the inner chain 2 ~Figure 1) by moving the rods 6 to the ends of the slots 9 in the inter-mediate portions 4i of the links while leaving the outer chain l (Figure 1) at full length with the same rods 6 in abutment against the ends of the slots 9 which are closest to the webs 5 of the links.
In order to follow a spiral or rectilinear path, -th0 moving belt must be guided. In the example shown in Figure 3, the links 3 of the chains 1 and 2 rest on bottom rails 12 which may be covered with a sliding coating 13. Such bottom rails are generally sufficient, however it is sometimes necessary to prevent the chains from rising, in particular when the said path runs over ridges and furrows respectively defined by convex and concave portions of the bottom rails 12. In such cases, the bottom rails 12 co-operate with top rails 14 which may optionally be covered with a sliding coating 15. The chains 1 and 2 then rest on the bottom rails 12 and bear against the top rails 14.
The transport device in accordance with the invention is adapted to this moving spiral belt and is illustrated therewith in Figures 1 to 4.
The device of the invention is also applicable to a moving belt which is rectilinear and which may include edge chains that do not have any longitudinal play.

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In accordance with the invention the transport device comprises rectangular arches 16 whose lateral portions or risers 17 and 18 are welded to rods 6 close to the chains 1 and 2, with their intermediate horizontal portions 19 constituting cross members~ All of the cross members 19 are raised above the chains 1 and 2 and are situated in a surface extending parallel to the surface defined by the chains. In addition, the arches 16 are always perpendicular to the surface defined by the chains. In other words they extend radially relative to the bot-tom rails 12.
Bins 20 are then suspended from selected ones of the cross members 19 with said bins extending transversely above -the surface defined by said cross members, so as to be upwardly open.
The selected cross members are separated by a distance which is a multiple of the pitch of the rods 6. In the example shown the pitch of the cross members 19 is three times the pitch of the rods.
Preferably, the bins 20 are flexible and are formed from a Z0 non-stick strip. The strip may be constituted by a glass fiber cloth coated with polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon) or with silicone. The strip is supported by the cross members l9 to which it is fixed by any appropriate means: clip fastenings;
gluing; stapling; riveting; bolting; sheathing; ... When the chains are substantially straight (Figura 6) the strip hangs between two consecutive cross members, thereby forming bins 20 whose shape and depth are suitable for receiving the selected semisolid goods, e.g. loaves of unbaked French bread. When the arches 16 converge towards each other, the bins 20a (Figure 8 close up in order to improve the shape of the unbaked loaf.
When the arches 16 diver~e away from each other, the same bins 20b (Figures 7, 8, and 9) or 20c (Figure 10) flatten out in order to improve reception or delivery of a loaf as the case may be.
In a variant shown in Figure 5, -tha rails 12 and optionally 14 (or other guide elements) need not co-operate with the chains 1 and 2 but may co-operate instead with the ends of the rods 6 between the risers 17 and 18 and said chains 1 and 2.

~7~9~3 Further, as can be seen from Figure 7, the guide elemen-ts may include a bottom roll 60 mounted free and imparting the shape of a convex portion 53 to the chains~ as described below.
The roll 60 then co-operates with top rail elements 14.1 and 14.2 situated on either side. Naturally, the bottom rail 12 is interrupted to pass the roll and has end portions 12.1 and 12.2 situated in the vicinity thereof.
As can be seen in Figure 8, the guide elements may also include a top roll 61 likewise freely mounted and imparting a concave shaped portion 55 to the chains, as described below.
The top roll 61 co-operates with two bottom rail elements 12.1 and 12.2 situated on either side or with two bottom rolls 60 (Figure 8) or with one bottom roll and with one bottom rail element.
The belt of raised bins 20 co-operates with a loading device 24 (Figure 6) or 25 (Figure 7) or 26 (Figure 8) or 27 (Figure 9) or any other loading device.
The loading device receives the semisolid goods under gravity, e.g. unbaked loaves 28, and it dispenses them successively into the bins 20. Given that the chains 1 and 2 of the belt are driven in continuous translation, and consequently that the bins 20 move continuously, -the loading device 24, 25, 26, or 27, is actuated by a control device (not shown) which is controlled by the speed of the belt and which is connected to a trigger circuit performing the AND function.
This circuit receives pulses from a detector for detecting goods placed in the receptacle of the loading device and from a detector 29 for detecting the passage of the risers 17 or 18 of the arches 16 or of the omega elements 21. The goods detector is not shown. Any appropriate type is suitable, and for example it may be constituted by a suitably disposed light source and photoelectric celI. The detector~29 for detecting the~passage of the risers 17 and 18 and thus of the cross members 19 and of the bins 20 may be of any appropriate type:
microswitch, proximity detector,... In any event, this ~`~ detector 29 (Figure 6) is placed at ~n appropriate location, preferably close to the loading device, and in a position ~nown .

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to the control device so as -to enable its compu-ter -to perform any necessary corrections.
Several embodiments of the loading device are shown in Figures 6 to 9.
In the first embodimen-t (Figure 6) -there is a hopper 30 for receiving individual loaves 28, and having a downstream wall 31 (downstream relative to the direction F of bin displacement) which is slightly inclined (angle a) downwardly and upstream relative to a ver-tical plane P and which is thus substantially perpendicular to the surface defined by the rails 12. Experience has shown that this small upstream inclination encourages accurate dropping of the loaf and ensures that it remains straight in the corresponding bin 20. The hopper 30 also has an upstream wall 32 constituting an inclined slope connected via side walls 33 to the downstream wall 31. The bottom of this hopper is delimited by an elongate delivery opening 34 which is situated as close as possible to the moving bins 20 and which is normally closed by a sliding door 35.
This door or shutter is guided in transla-tion in a slideway 36 of the hopper and is coupled to an actuator 37 of any appropriate type (pneumatic, hydraulic, electrical, mechanical,...), which bears on a fixed element. The actuator 37 is actuated under the control of the above-mentioned control deviceO In the example shown, the hopper is fixed; however, it may be advantageous to be able to adjust its level (as shown in Figure 7, in particular) in order to put its opening 34 at the best possible distance from the bins 20.
In the second embodiment shown in Figure 7, there is a hopper 38 having a slightly inclined downstream wall 31, an inclined slope upstream wall 39, and side walls 33. In this case, the upstream wall 39 is pivotally mounted about an axis 40 and is connected to an actuator 37 of any appropriate type.
In its closed posi-tion as shown by solid lines in Figure 7, -the upstream wall 39 meets the do~nstream wall 31, whereas in its open position, shown as a dot-dashed line, it moves away there-from in an upstream direction, thereby rQleasing the opening 34. Th~ downstream wall 31 is fixed on a fixed support 41 by ~27~i9S3 means of bolts 42 passing through downwardly directed slot 43 in order to make the above-mentioned height adjustment possible.
In the third embodiment shown in Figure 8, there is the same hopper 38 having an upstream pivoting wall 39. Regardl~ss ; 5 of whether the hopper is said hopper 38 or the hopper 30 of the first embodiment (figure 6), the level of the downstream wall 31 is adjustable by means of bolts 42 relative to a pivoting support 44 connected to a fixed frame 45 by means of a hinge axis 46 and by means of a suitable type of actuator 47. When the actuator is extended, the downstream wall 31 is suitably inclined at the angle a. When the actuator is retracted, which is performed as a function of time together with pivoting of the opening provided by the upstream wall 39 (Figure 8) or together with sliding of the door 35 (Figure 6) under the control of said control device, said downstream wall 31 pivots in the direction of arrow G substantially at the same speed as the speed of advance of the belt of bins 20 so that while being delivered into a bin 20, the loaf 28 moves with said bin 20 ; into which i-t is to be received.
In the fourth embodiment shown in Figure 9, the loading device 29 includes a rotor a8 fixed to a shaft 49 extending along a transverse axis and connected to a rotary drive device under the control of the above~mentioned control device so that the rotor turns at a speed appropriate for good delivery in the direction of arrow R which extends in the opposite direction to the displacement direction of the bins 20 along arrow F. The periphery of the rotor 48 delimits a plurality of concave recesses 50, and in the present example there are four such recesses 50.1 to 50.4. When in the position of recess 50.1, the recess receives a loaf 28 which falls off a feed conveyor ` 51 and it directs the loaf against a downstream wall 31 analogous to the above-described downstream walls, and said wall may be fixed or may be capable of pivoting downstream and its height may op-tionally be adjustable. The loaf 28 thus descends along the wall 31 while being accompanied by the lip 52 located at the downstream end of the recess 50.1. When the opening 34 between said wall and said lip becomes wide enough, the loaf falls into the bin 20 situated therebelow~

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12 ~ 7~363 The pitch of the recesses 50 depends on the speed of rotation of the rotorO If the tangential speed of the rotor is equal to the speed of bin displacemen-t, the pitch of the recesses 50 is equal -to the pi-tch of the cross members 19.
As already mentioned above, it may be advantageous to flatten the bins 20b (Figure 7, 8, and 9) so as to bring them closer to the delivery opening 34. To this end, the path of the rods 6 beneath the devices 24, 25, ~6, and 27 (if the devices 27 are situated above a normal path: i.e. a rectilinear or spiral portion of belt) includes convex portions 53 projecting upwardly. Thus, the xisers 17 (18) move away from each other and their cross members 19 move apart, thereby stretching the strip and flat-tening the bins 20b.
This considerably reduces the height through which the loaves are dropped, such that each loaf guided by the down-stream wall 31 tends to retain its substantially rectilinear shape, and its length, when it reaches the flattened bin 20b.
As the bin under consideration leaves the portion 53, the risers 17 co~e back upright and tend to converge towards each other (Figure 7) such that the said bin 20d deepens and closes in on itself prior to returning to its initial shape. While this is happening, the bin shapes the loaf and straightens it if it has become somewhat deformed while being dropped.
It may also be advantageous to accentuate this phenomenon of the bins 20a closing in on themselves (Figure 8) so that they provide better loaf shaping. To this end, the path of the rods 6 may include concave portions 55 (Figure 8) located down-stream from the delivery openings 34 of the devices 24 to 28, ~nd preferably immediately after the convex portions 53 or the return portions 54 described below, said concave portions having upwardly directed hollows and co-operating with parallel portions of the top rails 14. Thus, the risers 17 (18) converge towards each other and their cross members 19 move closer together, thereby increasing the depth of the enveloping hollow. The bins 20a thus close in on th loaves 28 and straighten them if they have become deformed.

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13 ~2~3 With respect to the ourth embodimen-t, it has been said tha-t the loading device 27 may be situated over a normal portion (i.e. a rectilinear or spiral portion) of the belt path. In this case the loaves 28 fall a relatively long way.
In order to reduce the height of this drop, the rotor 48 may be situated, as shown in Figure 9, close to a return portion 54 of the belt, which portion is generally determined by a set of horizontal axis pulleys over which the chains 1 and 2 are threaded at the inlet to the spiral deep freeze conveyor, for example. In this case, not only may the opening 34 be moved close to the return portion 54, but also, since the risers 17 (18~ diverge in this portion the cross members 19 move apart and the bins 20b are flattened as they approach said opening 34.
Finally, the belt of raised bins 20 may co-operate wi-th an unloading device 56 (Figure 10) by means of which deep frozen loaves or other goods are gently placed on an exit conveyor 57.
As can be seen in Figure 10, the unloading device 56 makes use of the above-described phenomenon. The conveyor 57 is disposed near the bottom of a return portion 58 at the exit end of the deep freeze conveyor (which may be a spiral conveyor, for example), said return portion 58 being determined like the portion 54 by a set of horizontal axis pulleys over which the chains 1 and 2 are passed. As a result, the risers 17 (18) diverge in said portion 58 moving the cross members 19 apart from one another and flattening the bins 20c to constitute sloping planes. The bins therefore unload the deep frozen loaves 28 onto a fixed slope 59 which directs them to the conveyor 57 without jolting.

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Claims (11)

1/ A device for transporting semisolid goods such as unbaked loaves of French or other bread, and including loading and unloading said goods, the device including a moving belt comprising:
marginal portions situated at or near to its margins, said marginal portions being are guided along guide elements;
a plurality of bins extending transversely side-by-side to receive said goods from above, said bins being suspended from cross members supported at least by said marginal portions of the belt and situated above the surface defined by said marginal portions in order to constitute a belt of raised bins, each edge of the belt being constituted by a chain comprising links which are hinged by means of rods extending transversely between the chains;
each rod end being fixed to one link and passing freely through the associated link, preferably with longitudinal play to enable the belt to turn corners; and each cross member being constituted by a horizontal mid portion of an arch having lateral riser portions which are rigidly fixed to a selected one of said rods.

2/ A device according to claim 1, wherein the raised bin belt co-operates with a loading device receiving semisolid goods under gravity and delivering them successively into the continuously moving bins, the loading device being actuated by a control device under the control of the belt speed and connected to an AND trigger circuit receiving pulses from a detector for detecting goods in the loading device and from a detector for detecting the passage of one of the riser portions of each cross member supporting a bin.

3/ A device according to claim 2, wherein the loading device comprises, in the direction of bin movement and above said bins a hopper for receiving semisolid goods and having a downstream wall at a small downwards and upstream inclination relative to a vertical transverse plane, and having a shutter member situated as close as possible to the bins and connected for upstream displacement to an actuator member under the control of said control device.

4/ A device according to claim 3, wherein the hopper has an upstream wall descending as an inclined slope to the downstream wall, said slope being pivotally mounted and being connected to the said actuator member in order to constitute the shutter element.

5/ A device according to claim 3, wherein the hopper has an upstream wall descending as an inclined slope and delimiting, together with the downstream wall, a delivery opening, said opening being closed by a sliding door connected to the said actuator member.

6/ A device according to claim 3, wherein the loading device comprises a rotor mounted to rotate about a transverse axis and connected to a rotary drive device for driving it in rotation under the control of the said control device, said rotor delimiting peripheral concave cells which, when they coma successively into a delivery position, receive an item of semisolid goods under gravity and direct it against a wall situated downstream from the rotor in the direction of bin displacement, said rotor rotating to move the cells in the opposite direction to the bins and said downstream wall sloping downwardly and in an upstream direction at a small angle relative to a vertical transverse plane.

7/ A device according to claim 6, wherein the peripheral pitch of the cells of the rotor is substantially equal to the pitch of the bins in the delivery zone.

8/ A device according to claim 4, wherein at least the downstream wall is connected, for the purpose of accompanying the bins downstream when the hopper is opened, to an actuator member under the control of the said control device.

9/ A device according to claim 1, including a loading device above the belt, and wherein the guide elements of the raised bin belt are provided with convex portions projecting upwardly beneath the delivery opening of the loading device or the reception area of an unloading device, in such a manner that the riser portions of the two contiguous support members of each bin diverge upwardly as they pass over said portions, thereby stretching the corresponding bin and flattening it, thereby moving it towards said opening in order to reduce the height through which the semisolid goods are dropped.

10/ A device according to claim 1, including a loading device above the belt, and wherein downstream from the delivery opening from the loading device, the guide elements of the raised bin belt have concave portions with upwardly directed hollows such that as the riser portions of the two continuous support cross-members of each bin pass along said concave portions they converge upwardly tending to close the bin under consideration in on itself in order to improve the rectilinear shape of the item of semisolid goods contained in the bin.

11/ A device according to claim 9 or 10, wherein each guide element also includes at least in each of the convex or concave portions of its path a bottom or top roll interposed between the top or bottom rail elements and mounted freely to co-operate with the top or bottom rail elements respectively situated on either side.