Handling plant for cement tiles or the like with the aid of trays upon which the tiles are placed for seasoning

Claim 1

An improved apparatus, for handling articles of manufacture, such as cement tiles or the like and transporting the articles sequentially through a plurality of operating stations, comprising: a first conveying means, a charging station disposed adjacent said first conveying means, a plurality of trays adapted to be disposed on said first conveying means whereby said first conveyor means serially advances through trays through a first conveying path toward said charging station, said charging station including means overlying said first conveying path for stacking said articles onto the trays in said charging station, a tray station disposed downstream of said charging station, said tray piling station having means for stacking a plurality of trays containing said stacked articles one upon the other as the respective trays pass through said charging station, a second conveyor means having an end portion adapted to receive a plurality of stacked trays containing subsequently processed articles, a tray unpiling station associated with said second conveyor means, an article pick-up station disposed downstream from said unpiling station whereby the processed articles are removed from said unpiled trays, said tray unpiling station including means for sequentially removing said trays from said stacked trays whereby said unstacked trays are sequentially advanced toward said pick-up station to effect the removal of the articles from said trays, and said emptied trays being recycled to said first conveyor means on an interconnecting conveyor for advancement toward said charging station, and means for selectively moving said trays into said charging station through steps equal to submultiples of the tray length for sequentially receiving two or more stackings of said articles from said charging station.