The present invention relates to an assembly for collecting different goods comprising at least two feed conveyors for said goods, a collection conveyor extending at an angle to said feed conveyors, one end of which is arranged below said feed conveyors close to the discharge end thereof to receive the products therefrom and the other end of which is constructed to collect together said goods to form a pack. An assembly of this type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,630,428.
For a wide variety of applications it is necessary to bring different goods together. These are then transferred to an outer packaging in a further step. Such goods can already be packed as such and although these packs can be identical, the content of the packs can differ. Great care is required, especially if vulnerable goods have to be transferred.
Various types of crisps or similar savoury snacks that are put on sale in an outer packaging is one example of collecting together different goods. The number of different flavours in an outer packaging can be from two to a few tens.
Such goods have to be packed at high speed, but because they are of a nature that is susceptible to damage (breakage of the product) they must always be fully guided. Furthermore, there is the problem that the supply of the different streams of goods is not always continuous. Such goods are supplied by feed conveyors but it cannot be guaranteed that all feed conveyors are continuously able to discharge a continuous stream of goods. The consequence of a malfunction in the discharge from a single feed conveyor is that a pack consisting of different goods can no longer be made up and that the entire process comes to a halt. It will be understood that there can be a substantial loss of production as a result.
A system for filling boxes with different sweets is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,630,428. Rows of sweets next to one another are buffered at the discharge end of a feed conveyor. There the sweets are picked up one by one by a gripper device with an arm and by means of a transfer movement are placed in the desired position in the sweet packs located underneath. Only a limited speed can be achieved with such an installation, whilst positioning the sweets next to one another has the associated risk of damage and sticking together.
In GB 158 715 the discharge ends of a number of feed conveyors emerge onto a common collection conveyor without buffering. Control of the metering of the different products onto the collection conveyor is not possible.