Product grouping and packing apparatus and method

Abstract

An apparatus and method for collecting flexible bagged product into groups having desired spacing characteristics and for packing such product groups in receptacles is disclosed. In a first embodiment, the apparatus of the present invention includes an infeed belt for transporting product, a collecting belt operatively aligned with the infeed belt for collecting product from the infeed in product groups, product detecting apparatus for detecting units of product passing from the infeed belt to the collecting belt, means for transporting the product groups from the collecting belt to receptacles, and a controller operatively connected to the detecting apparatus and the collecting belt for advancing the collecting belt a preselected distance for each product which passes onto the collecting belt until a group containing the preselected number of product is collected on the collecting belt, and for activating the collecting belt to advance the collected product gorups to a transporting station. In a second embodiment of the present invention, product groups having the desired characteristics (i.e. number and time separation) are collected by varying the speed of the collecting belt, as opposed to the "stop/start" operation of the first embodiment. A third embodiment of the present invention combines selected components of the first and second embodiments and comprises a variable speed spacing belt operatively aligned with an infeed belt for creating a preselected time separation between product groups, and a collecting belt operatively aligned with the spacing belt for collecting product from the spacing belt in product groups. In a preferred embodiment, the transporting apparatus of the present invention comprises an oscillating conveyor for selectively depositing product groups into receptacles for shipping and handling.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.