Conveying apparatus and method

A conveying method includes first and second pads conveying workpieces with speeds of the first and second pads being varied; circumferential velocities of the first pads and the second pads are accelerated by variable speed mechanisms; the first and second pads move and separate in a state in which a distance between the first pad and the second pad, whose speeds were increased, is increased; the circumferential velocities of the first pads and the second pads are decelerated by the variable speed mechanisms; and a first slider and a second slider, which were subjected to deceleration, overlap each other in a part in a circumferential direction, which causes the first pad and the second pad to approach each other, and the first pad and the second pad move and approach each other in this state in which the first pad and the second pad have approached each other.