Rotary manipulator for conveyor goods

A rotary manipulator for conveyor goods comprises a generally cylindrical manipulator disposed between an input or feed conveyor and one or more output conveyors, with its axis parallel to the planes of the conveyors and normal to their direction of travel. The manipulator includes at least one flattened side, with a retaining lip extending along one edge thereof. Articles such as baked goods advance along the feed conveyor, where they are captured on the flat of the manipulator and momentarily retained by the retaining lip. The manipulator is rotated to drop the articles inverted on a lower output conveyor. The next row of articles from the feed conveyor passes upright over the rounded opposite side of the manipulator, which is substantially tangent to the feed conveyor and to an upper output conveyor. The upright and inverted articles are placed in registry with one another at a point downstream. The present invention may be used for inverting predetermined ratios of various articles and placing them in facing registry with one another, but is particularly useful in the baking industry for the making of sandwich type goods. Other embodiments allow the present manipulator to divide a flow of articles onto an upper and a lower output conveyor without inverting the articles, to align randomly positioned articles in a conveyor line, and to stack a series of articles on an intermittently moving output conveyor.