Confection conveyor system with constant-velocity pick-up section and pausing drop section

A method of transferring a series of confection products forming a serial stream on a serial conveyor intended for steady state continuous conveying from a first station to a drop station with a pausing portion of said conveyor located at said drop station undergoing a pause for providing parallel transfer of a number, n, of confection products to a stationary receiving station substantially without relative movement between said pausing portion and said receiving station, said conveyor returning from said drop station to said first station, comprising the steps of

• (a) transferring n confections from said paused portion onto said receiving station, said transferred confections being every other one of a part of said serial stream,
• (b) removing any confections of said stream located on said conveyor downstream of said drop station prior to return of said conveyor to said first station,
• (c) advancing the conveyor a distance equal to n+1 or n-1 products in said stream, stopping the portion of said conveyor located at said drop station and transferring n products to said receiving portion,
• (d) removing the remainder of said confections from said stream located on said conveyor downstream of said transfer station and before said first station,
• (e) advancing the conveyor a distance equal to n-1 or n+1 products, stopping the portion of said conveyor adjacent to said receiving station and transferring n products to said receiver station, and
• (f) thereafter alternately repeating steps (c) and (e).

Apparatus for manufacture of processed confections comprising,

• a first closed loop conveyor comprising a series of horizontal plates moving at substantially continuous velocity V, in a first direction,
• a first station adjacent to said first closed loop conveyor having means for depositing confections at a substantially continuous rate on said conveyor plates as they move by said first station, thereby forming a serial stream of said confections,
• a second station substantially surrounding a portion of said conveyor at a position downstream from said first station,
• a treatment means at said second station for continuously treating said serial stream of said confections,
• a second closed loop conveyor having a first portion moving continuously at said velocity V, and a second portion pausing intermittently without affecting the velocity V, of said first portion,
• a transfer station for transferring confections from said first conveyor loop to said second conveyor loop at the portion where said second conveyor loop is moving with velocity V,
• a drop station positioned adjacent to the portion of said second conveyor loop which is pausing intermittently, and
• receiving means at said drop station for simultaneously transferring a plurality of confections from said serial stream to said receiving means as a plurality of parallel lanes of confections, while said conveyor portion is paused, such that said confections are transferred essentially without imparting any motion to said confections in the direction of movement of said second conveyor loop.