Indexing device

Claim 1

AN INDEXING DEVICE FOR INDEXING CONTAINERS AND THE LIKE HAVING SURFACES PRESENTING A HORIZONTAL CIRCULAR CROSSSELECTION DURING MOVEMENT OF THE CONTAINERS ON A CONVEYOR, COMPRISING POSITIONING MEANS CARRYING A PAIR OF OPPOSED MEMBERS ADAPTED TO ABUT THE SURFACE OF THE CONTAINER IN TWO LATERAL LOCATIONS ON THE CIRCULAR PORTION THEREOF WHEREBY THE CONTAINER WILL BE PUSHED INTO CENTRAL ALIGNMENT BETWEEN SAID MEMBERS, SAID OPPOSED MEMBERS BEING MOUNTED FOR LATERAL MOVEMENT, YIELDABLE MEANS FOR URGING SAID MEMBERS RELATIVELY TOWARD EACH OTHER, SAID YIELDABLE MEANS BEING SUFFICIENTLY YIELDABLE TO ALLOW THE MEMBERS TO BE MOVED RELATIVELY APART ON MOVEMENT OF A CONTAINER INTO INDEXING POSITION BY SAID CONVEYOR, CENTERING MEANS ASSOCIATED WITH SAID OPPOSED MEMBERS FOR MAINTAINING THE MEMBERS IN BILATERAL SYMMETRY WITH RESPECT TO A CENTRAL ALIGNMENT DURING LATERAL MOVEMENT OF SAID MEMBERS, LATCH MEANS ASSOCIATED WITH SAID MEMBERS FOR HOLDING THE MEMBERS IN AN ADJUSTED LATERAL LOCATION DURING POSITIONING OF THE UNIT BEING POSITIONED, AND MEANS FOR RELEASING SAID LATCH MEANS AND ALLOWING SAID MEMBERS TO MOVE LATERALLY AN AMOUNT SUFFICIENT TO ALLOW THE CONTAINER BEING INDEXED TO PASS THROUGH SAID INDEXING DEVICE.