Noncontact conveyor feeder system

A conveyor system including:

• a downstream conveyor having a plurality of spaced product receiving flites;
• a downstream conveyor drive;
• a downstream conveyor drive control for controlling the downstream conveyor drive and for providing signals representative of the velocity of the downstream conveyor;
• a downstream conveyor monitor for providing data representative of flite positions on the downstream conveyor;
• a first upstream conveyor upstream from the downstream conveyor for receiving products and for driving the products toward the downstream conveyor;
• a first upstream conveyor drive responsive to drive control signals;
• a first upstream conveyor monitor for providing data representative of product positions on the upstream conveyor;
• and
• a first upstream conveyor product positioning drive control system coupled to the downstream conveyor drive control, the downstream conveyor monitor, and to the upstream conveyor monitor, for controlling the first upstream conveyor drive so as to shift positions of products on the first upstream conveyor relative to flites on the downstream conveyor, including:
• means for computing positional errors of products on the upstream conveyor with respect to target flites;
• means for characterizing the positional errors as being in one of a plurality of condition flag states, each condition flag state representing a range of positional errors, and including condition flag states representing at least two ranges of positive positional errors and at least two ranges of negative positional errors;
• means for characterizing fill states of the target flites and flites previous to the target flites as being in one of a plurality of full flag states, including full flag states representative of whether the target flites are full and whether the flites previous to the target flites are full;
• means for characterizing position correction distances between the positions of products on the first upstream conveyor and selected flites on the downstream conveyor as a function of full flag states and condition flag states;
• means for generating upstream conveyor drive control signals for controlling the velocity of the upstream conveyor and causing positions of products on the first upstream conveyor to be shifted by the correction distances with respect to the downstream conveyor in an attempt to cause relative alignment between the products and associated target flites or flites adjacent the target flites;
• and
• means for updating the full flag states to reflect the fill states of the target and previous flites after the positions of products have been shifted.

A method for operating a drive control system for an upstream conveyor receiving potentially irregularly spaced products and positioned to drive products toward a receiving system having a plurality of regularly spaced product receiving flites, the method including for each product received:

• detecting the product on the upstream conveyor;
• determining a flite on the receiving system as a target flite for the product;
• determining fill states of the target flite and an adjacent preceding flite;
• determining positional errors of the product on the upstream conveyor relative to its target flite;
• selecting a destination flite for the product from among the preceding flite, the target flite and an adjacent following flite as a function of the fill states of the target flite and the preceding flite, and the positional errors of the product relative to its target flite;
• and
• controlling the velocity profile of the product by varying the speed of the upstream conveyor with respect to velocity of the receiving system to deliver the product to its destination flite.

A method for operating a drive control system for an upstream conveyor positioned to drive products toward a receiving system having a plurality of spaced product receiving flites, the method including:

• determining a target flite for product as received upon the upstream conveyor;
• determining phase errors of products on the upstream conveyor relative to their respective target flites;
• characterizing the phase errors as being in one of plurality of condition flag states, each condition flag state representing a range of phase errors, and including condition flags representing as least two ranges of positive phase errors and at least two ranges of negative phase errors;
• determining fill states of target flites and flites previous to the target flites, including whether the target flites are full and whether the flites previous to the target flites are full;
• characterizing the fill states of target flites and flites previous to the target flites as being in one of a plurality of full flag states;
• selecting destination flites for the products as a function of full flag states, the condition flag states and the phase errors;
• characterizing position correction distances between positions of products on the upstream conveyor and their destination flites;
• and
• controlling velocity of the upstream conveyor to shift positions of products on the upstream conveyor by the correction distances with respect to the receiving system to position the products in their destination flites.