System for collecting confectionary product

A method for processing confectionary product, the method comprising:

• providing a collecting device, at least one upstream confectionary production station disposed upstream of said collecting device, and at least one downstream confectionary production station disposed downstream of said collecting device, wherein said at least one upstream confectionary production station cools the confectionary product and said at least one downstream confectionary production station packages the confectionary product;
• continuously conveying the confectionary product from said at least one upstream confectionary production station to a collecting device via at least one conveying device when said downstream production station is in both operational and non-operational;
• collecting confectionary product from said at least one conveying device in said collecting device while said at least one upstream confectionary production station is operational, and while at least one downstream confectionary production station is non-operational;
• and
• depositing said collected confectionary product from said collecting device onto said at least one conveying device and conveying the confectionary product from said collecting device to said at least one downstream production station via said at least one conveying device when said at least one downstream production station is operational, said depositing said collected confectionary product from said collecting device onto said at least one conveying device including interspersing said collected confectionery product with the confectionary product output from the upstream confectionary production station;
• wherein said at least one conveying device includes a first upstream conveying device and a second downstream conveying device and during said depositing said collected confectionary product onto said at least one conveying device a speed of said downstream conveying device is greater than a speed of said upstream conveying device.

A system for processing gum, the system comprising:

• a collecting device disposed in line with a forming device configured to form gum into a continuous sheet of final gum thickness and divide said continuous sheet into individual sheets and at least one downstream confectionary production station configured to score or package said individual sheets;
• at least one conveying device including a first conveying device configured to convey the gum from said forming device to said collecting device;
• and a second conveying device configured to receive the gum from said collecting device, and convey the gum from said collecting device to said at least one downstream confectionary production station;
• wherein said at least one conveying device continuously conveys the gum from an upstream production station to said collecting device when said downstream production station is in both operational and non-operational;
• wherein said collecting device is configured to collect gum from said conveying device while said forming device is operational and said at least one downstream confectionary production station is non-operational;
• wherein said collecting device is configured to deposit the collected gum onto said at least one conveying device while said at least one downstream confectionary production station is operational, the collected gum being deposited onto the at least one conveying device interspersed with the gum output from the upstream confectionary production station;
• and
• wherein during deposit of the gum product onto said at least one conveying device, a speed of the second conveying device is greater than a speed of the first conveying device.