Dynamic gap establishing synchronous product insertion system

An article conveyor system for conveying postal mail pieces, comprising:

• at least two upstream conveyors wherein each one of said at least two upstream conveyors respectively conveys a plurality of serially spaced postal mail pieces along an upstream conveyor path;
• at least one downstream conveyor onto which the plurality of serially spaced postal mail pieces, conveyed along each one of said at least two upstream conveyor paths, can be deposited for conveyance along said at least one downstream conveyor;
• said at least two upstream conveyors being adapted to have said upstream conveyor paths converge at a merge point so as to convey their respective serially spaced postal mail pieces onto said at least one downstream conveyor;
• means for detecting the presence of the plurality of serially spaced postal mail pieces upon each one of said at least two upstream conveyors at predetermined locations along said each one of said at least two upstream conveyor paths and for generating signals indicative of the detected presence of the plurality of serially spaced postal mail pieces at said predetermined locations along said each one of said at least two upstream conveyor paths;
• and
• a single synchronizer means operatively associated with only one of said at least two upstream conveyors for adaptively varying the conveying speed of only said only one of said at least two upstream conveyors by selectively speeding up and slowing down said conveying speed of said only one of said at least two upstream conveyors in response to said signals indicative of the presence of the plurality of serially spaced postal mail pieces at said predetermined locations along said each one of said at least two upstream conveyor paths in order to synchronize the conveyance of the plurality of serially spaced postal mail pieces disposed upon said conveyor paths of said at least two upstream conveyors whereby the plurality of serially spaced postal mail pieces, originally disposed upon said upstream conveyor paths of said at least two upstream conveyors, are able to be conveyed onto said at least one downstream conveyor without experiencing any spatial interference between any of the plurality of serially spaced postal mail pieces as the plurality of serially spaced postal mail pieces are conveyed onto said at least one downstream conveyor from said at least two upstream conveyors.

A synchronizer system for synchronizing the conveyance of at least two upstream asynchronously operated conveyors wherein each one of the at least two upstream asynchronously operated conveyors respectively conveys a plurality of serially spaced articles along an upstream conveyor path such that the plurality of serially spaced articles being conveyed along the at least two upstream asynchronously operated conveyors can be conveyed onto at least one downstream conveyor disposed at a merge point of the at least two upstream asynchronously operated conveyors, comprising:

• means for detecting the presence of the plurality of serially spaced articles upon each one of the at least two upstream conveyors at predetermined locations along each one of the at least two upstream conveyor paths and for generating signals indicative of the detected presence of the plurality of serially spaced articles at said predetermined locations along each one of the at least two upstream conveyor paths;
• and
• a single synchronizer means operatively associated with only one of the at least two upstream conveyors for adaptively varying the conveying speed of only the only one of the at least two upstream conveyors by selectively speeding up and slowing down the conveying speed of the only one of the at least two upstream conveyors in response to said signals indicative of the presence of the plurality of serially spaced articles at said predetermined locations along each one of the at least two upstream conveyor paths in order to synchronize the conveyance of the plurality of serially spaced articles disposed upon the conveyor paths of the at least two upstream conveyors whereby the plurality of serially spaced articles, originally disposed upon the upstream conveyor paths of the at least two upstream conveyors, are able to be conveyed onto the at least one downstream conveyor without experiencing any spatial interference between any of the plurality of serially spaced articles as the plurality of serially spaced articles are conveyed onto the at least one downstream conveyor from the at least two upstream conveyors.