Apparatus and method for feeding and conveying items

A method, including steps of

• moving one or more items on a conveyor toward a receiving hopper;
• dropping those items from the conveyor into the receiving hopper to form a stack;
• measuring a level of the stack;
• maintaining a drop distance between the conveyor and the level of the stack within a desirable range including at least a minimum distance between the level of the stack and the level of the conveyer by operations that include adjusting a speed of the conveyor when the drop distance between the conveyor and the level of the stack is not within the desirable range;
• wherein
• the receiving hopper is configured to feed items out of the hopper from off of a bottom of the stack;
• the step of maintaining includes performing at least one of the following as item are feed into and out of the hopper:
• decreasing the speed of the conveyor when the level of the stack is more than a target fill level so as to decrease the rate at which items are deposited into the hopper;
• or
• increasing the speed of the conveyor when the level of the stack is less than a minimum fill level so as to increase the rate at which items are deposited into the hopper.

Apparatus including

• a conveyor configured to move one or more items toward a receiving hopper, the receiving hopper configured to receive the items into a stack thereof;
• a sensor configured to determine a level of the stack;
• a controller coupled to the conveyor and configured to maintain a drop distance between the conveyor and the level of the stack within a desirable range that includes at least a minimum distance between the level of the stack and the level of the conveyer;
• wherein
• the controller is configured to adjust a speed of the conveyor when the drop distance between the conveyor and the level of the stack is not within the desirable range;
• the receiving hopper is configured to feed items out of the hopper from off of a bottom of the stack;
• and
• the controller is configured to increase the speed of the conveyer to a maximum speed and to stop the items from being feed out of the bottom of the hopper when the level of the stack is less than a low threshold.