Linear alignment conveyor design

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To gather light longitudinal parts like pencils or matches into a neatly aligned buffer, unconventional bowl feeders and linear feeders with grooved vibro-plates are considered, though they may still result in misalignment. A proposed solution involves using a catenary loop conveyor belt, where items slide diagonally and align as they roll, eventually gathering at the low end of the slope. The mechanism suggests that reversing the conveyor direction could facilitate the movement of already aligned pieces to a designated section. The width of the buffer should ideally match the length of a single piece, but it remains uncertain if the entire batch will orient correctly. Evaluating the structure requires careful consideration of the alignment and stacking process.
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I have a tub randomly filled with light longitudinal parts like pencils or matches. My goal is to gather them into a buffer nicely aligned (independently of which end is facing side). What's the fastest way to achieve this?

I have considered unconventional bowl feeder with substantial radius conveying part radially from the filled drum, what do you think?

Also, linear feeder with a grooved vibro-plate but that still brings misaligned stacked parts. Is it solvable by stepping down the conveyor and putting up vertical constraints? Even then, how do I proceed to stack everything neatly?

Any way to evaluate this theoretically?
 
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Consider a sheet conveyor belt hanging in a catenary loop. As the belt advances, items dropped onto the belt will slide diagonally until they become aligned and roll. If the belt is then stopped they will be in a bundle.

By arranging a similar wide belt with a slight slope down the valley, the elongated objects will align and roll, then gradually feed to the low end of the valley where they can be gathered and bundled.
 
I'm not a native English user so I want to clarify this for myself. Is this the mechanism you had in mind?

catenary.jpg


Reversing direction of conveyor the already aligned pieces would roll down to the B section or did you have any other idea?
Also, what would be the width of such buffer? My guess is the length of a single piece but would the whole bunch of them orient? How should I evaluate the structure. Thanks for the answers!
 

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