with the arrow 32 in fig4 the orienting rollers 14 have a circumferential surface 14a which has preferably a high coefficient of friction they may be for example rubber rollers the conveyor belt 10 is as viewed in its running direction 15 arranged upstream of the turning device 30 and may be a conventional belt as shown in fig1 stationary aligning shoes 8 and 9 extend laterally over the conveyor belt 10 in a sequential arrangement in the description which follows the operation of the conveyor assembly according to the invention will be set forth the items to be sorted are manually or mechanically placed on the conveyor belt 10 upstream of the aligning shoe 8 in a preferably approximate alignment the deposited items 5 39 are further aligned by the aligning shoe 8 as indicated in fig1 relatively long items 5 39 are positioned by the aligning shoe 8 in such a manner that they are by means of the subsequent aligning shoe 9 on the other side of the conveyor 10 aligned such that a narrow side 5a becomes the leading end as viewed in the conveying direction 15 fig1 shows such a longitudinal alignment of items 5 34 by the aligning shoe 9 at the height of the aligning shoe 9 light barriers 19 and 20 are spacedly and sequentially arranged by means of which the length of an item 5 34 may be accurately determined if the light barriers 19 and 20 detect a particularly long item 5 34 which has to be subsequently aligned the orienting rollers 14 are brought into their full line raised position illustrated in fig3 for.