Conveyor system and conveyor apparatus therefor

Abstract

A conveyor system comprising a lane conveyor for moving articles in separate lanes with random spacing between the articles, an endless conveyor having article receiving carriers thereon each arranged to receive one or more articles from a lane of said lane conveyor, a second lane conveyor having lanes thereon preferably greater or less in number than the number of lanes in the first lane conveyor, and structure for simultaneously discharging a number of the carriers so as to distribute the articles substantially equally among the lanes of the second lane conveyor. Provision is made to prevent repetition of failure to load a lane in such instances where the number of lanes in the first lane conveyor is equal to the number of lanes in the second lane conveyor.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.