Conveyor system for conveying food products and associated operating method

A conveyor system for conveying and formatting food products into product stacks, the conveyor system comprising:

• an inlet for receiving the food products in product rows arranged parallel to one another and transversely to a conveying direction;
• a lower product conveyor arranged to receive and to convey a first portion of the food products in the conveying direction;
• an upper product conveyor arranged to receive and to convey a second portion of the food products in the conveying direction, wherein the upper product conveyor is arranged above the lower product conveyor, wherein at least one of the upper product conveyor and the lower product conveyor is a shuttle conveyor configured to selectively move transversely to the conveying direction;
• a distributor conveyor comprising incoming conveying tracks, each configured to receive a respective food product of each product row, wherein each of the incoming conveyor tracks of the distributor conveyor is configured to independently vertically swivel between
• a first swivel position in which the food products thereon are directed to the lower product conveyor as the first portion of the food products, and
• a second swivel position in which the food products thereon are directed to the upper product conveyor as the second portion of the food products,
• wherein, in a first operating mode, a first set of the incoming conveying tracks are positioned into the first swivel position and a second set of the incoming conveying tracks are positioned into the second swivel position, and
• wherein, in a second operating mode, collectively all of the incoming conveying tracks are positioned into the first swivel position or collectively all of the incoming conveying tracks are positioned into the second swivel position;
• an output conveyor comprising outgoing conveying tracks arranged to receive the first portion of the food products from the lower product conveyor and the second portion of the food products from the upper product conveyor such that the second portion of the food products are at least at least partially stacked on the first portion of the food products;
• and
• an outlet arranged downstream of the output conveyor to receive and output the second portion of the food products at least partially stacked on the first portion of the food products as the product stacks.