Inventors:
Robert D. Wykes - Worcester MA
Colin Roy - Worcester MA
Assignee:
Morgan Construction Company - Worcester MA
International Classification:
B65G 4726
Abstract:
An apparatus for laterally separating a group of elongated magnetic elements, for example steel bars which are moving longitudinally along a conveyor. A rotatable fanning roll extends transversally across the path of the bars. The fanning roll has a magnet associated therewith. The magnet attracts the bars towards the fanning roll while simultaneously creating repulsion forces tending to laterally separate the bars. A deflecting roll located in advance of the fanning roll is employed to deflect the bars out of their normal path of travel in relation to the surface of the fanning roll to thereby produce a momentary separation between the front ends of the bars and the fanning roll. During this momentary separation, the magnetically induced repulsion forces are not impeded by frictional resistance between the bars and the surface of the fanning roll, and this in turn improves the resulting lateral bar separation.