Numerous systems exist for displacing articles being transported by a conveyor belt. Perhaps the simplest systems are those that remove defective items from a belt. For example, where a product is sold by weight, each container is carried over a weighing station where its weight is determined. If a container is too light, e.g., that particular container is deflected off the belt. A simple system thus includes a deflecting gate that is activated by a signal from the weighing station. The gate, when activated, swings out into the path of travel of the unacceptable package and constrains it to follow a path of travel that carries it off the belt to a reject station. It is important to note that in a simple system of this type, there is relative motion between the container and the gate because the gate is stationary.
Similar gates, in more complex systems, are used to redirect containers on a belt to different lanes. For example, recycled soft drink bottles from different companies are commonly sorted at a facility equipped with means for detecting the difference between the bottles of differing soft drink companies. If the facility handles bottles from six different companies, e.g., gating means are provided to direct incoming bottles, which are randomly placed on the conveyor, into six different lanes. Thus, articles are not deflected off the belt in systems of this type, although a multiple-lane forming system can be used in conjunction with a rejection-type system.
Thus, in the lane forming systems, as in the rejecting systems, there is relative motion between the moving product and the stationary gate.
The art of conveyor systems in general is well developed, but the art has not produced diverting means that travel at the same speed as the conveyed article to substantially eliminate relative motion therebetween. Such an improved system would be desirable because the friction generated by the relative motion often causes jams and the loss of product that usually results from jams. The prior art, taken as a whole, neither teaches nor suggests how the relative motion between product and deflecting gate could be eliminated.