Distributing and collecting device for conveyed products

A distributing and collecting device for conveyed products, the device distributes and collects products sequentially supplied from a carrier conveyor, the products being distributed and collected into a prescribed number of rows in sets of a fixed amount of products, the device comprising:

• a wide conveyor having a front end connected to an end of the carrier conveyor, the wide conveyor receiving products one after another from the carrier conveyor and extending generally along an entire length of the device;
• a conveyance-direction sorting guide having a front end near the front end of the wide conveyor, the front end of the conveyance-direction sorting guide receiving products from the carrier conveyor and discharging the products at a rear end thereof, the conveyance-direction sorting guide being positioned above the wide conveyor and the rear end of the conveyance-direction sorting guide being oscillatable to move from one side of the wide conveyor to another side thereof;
• product-distributing means for distributing the products into the rows, the product-distributing means having a pair of facing vertical conveyors above the wide conveyor, a front end of the vertical conveyors being connected to the rear end of the conveyance-direction sorting guide, the products being sandwiched between and conveyed by the vertical conveyors at generally a same speed the products are conveyed by the wide conveyor, the vertical conveyors discharging a prescribed number of products to an end row position on the wide conveyor, the vertical conveyors being movable with the conveyance-direction sorting guide to move from side to side of the wide conveyor to thereby discharge the products to different row positions on the wide conveyor, the products being sequentially discharged to adjacent row positions and the prescribed number of products being in each of the row positions;
• a first gate movable between an opened and closed position, the first gate extending across the wide conveyor and being movable generally perpendicularly to a conveying direction, the first gate being a prescribed distance from the product-distributing means, at least some of the products being temporarily stored in multiple rows in front of the first gate;
• and
• a second gate a prescribed distance from the first gate, the second gate being vertically movable relative to the wide conveyor to move between an opened and closed position, the second gate blocking movement of the prescribed number of rows of products when in the closed position such that the products are held in the rows before being discharged from the device, the products being discharged from the device when the second gate is moved to the opened position.