Conveyor system

A conveyor system for positioning slices of meat or other foodstuffs by converting M input streams of products into N output streams of products where M is an integer greater than one and N is an integer greater than M comprises input conveyor means (55) for conveying said M input streams, output conveyor means (58) for conveying said N output streams, and a plurality of multi-element strip conveyors (56,57) whose downstream ends have individual roller elements mounted on common arches, arranged side-by-side, each of said multi-element strip conveyors having an upstream input end, a downstream output end, independent motorized lateral movement means to move laterally said common axles at said downstream output end, and a series parallel being arranged conveying elements (67), said conveying elements being arranged to conform as said downstream end of said multi-element strip conveyor moves laterally, all of said conveyors in said conveyor system lying in the same generally horizontal plane, said upstream input end of each said multi-element strip conveyor being arranged to receive products from an input stream on said input conveyor means and said downstream end being arranged to deposit products into one of two output streams shifted laterally with respect to said input stream, said downstream ends of each of said plurality of multi-element strip conveyors being independently movable, and adjacent multi-element strip conveyors being capable of feeding products from adjacent streams into the same output stream at different times.