Collating conveyor for bagged products

Claim 1

A collating conveyor arrangement for bagged product, comprising: (a) a feed conveyor on which individual bags of product are carried forward; (b) an intermittently movable, forwardly indexing, takeoff conveyor; (c) collating erector means interposed between the feed and takeoff conveyors for assisting in the transfer of bags between the conveyors and erecting them, one at a time, by forward movement of the erector means while the takeoff conveyor is stationary into a forwardly inclined position on the takeoff conveyor so as to assemble a collated column of bags on the takeoff conveyor; (d) means for sensing the arrival of a bag on the takeoff conveyor be sensing the presence of said bag in a rearwardly inclined position on said takeoff conveyor and generating a first signal in response to sensing said arrival; (e) erector actuation means included in the erector means, for actuating the erector means into said forwardly inclined position in response to said first signal; (f) actuator means for commencing each forward indexing movement of the takeoff conveyor in response to the completion, by said erector means, of the erection of each bag into said forwardly inclined position; (g) means inclined in said actuator means and located downstream of the erector means, for sensing the completion of erection of each bag into said forwardly inclined position by sensing the presence of each bag in said fowardly inclined position on said takeoff conveyor and for generating a second signal in response to sensing the completion of the erection of each bag; and (h) means included in said actuator means for commencing each forward indexing movement of said takeoff conveyor in response to said second signal.