Patent ID: 7281361

Claim:
A method for portioning discrete articles, comprising the steps of: providing an article portioning system, said article portioning system comprising: an article counting head housing comprising a chamber through which articles pass between a chamber inlet and a chamber outlet, a divider which divides at least a portion of the chamber vertically into two adjacent article flow channels, an upper diverting gate which is located adjacent to an upper end of the divider and below the chamber inlet, and is positionable to alternately block the flow of articles from entering one or the other of the two channels, a lower outlet gate which is located adjacent to a lower end of the divider and above the chamber outlet, and is positionable to alternately block the flow of articles from leaving one or the other of the two channels, and an article-detecting unit located above the upper diverting gate; feeding a plurality of articles into the article portioning system; generating signals corresponding to characteristics of the articles passing through the detecting unit, wherein the characteristics include at least one of a count of articles and a predetermined range of a predetermined specification, and the generated signals include at least a portion complete signal generated when a predetermined portion of articles has entered the detecting unit, and an out-of-specification signal when the detecting unit detects a characteristic which falls outside the predetermined range; and controlling, based on the generated signals, the positions of the upper diverting gate and the lower outlet gate, wherein positioning initially the gates to block the flow of articles into or from a first one of the two channels, generating a portion complete signal, moving the upper diverting gate to a position which blocks article flow into a second of the two channels, such that only the completed portion is allowed to pass through the second channel to the chamber outlet and further articles are diverted into the first channel, moving the lower outlet gate to block the second channel when the articles passing through the second channel are no longer beneath the chamber outlet and thereby allowing articles in the first channel to pass through the chamber outlet, generating a portion complete signal corresponding to a complete portion passing through the first channel, returning the upper diverting gate to the position blocking the flow of articles into the first channel, and returning the lower outlet gate to the position blocking the flow of articles from the first channel when the articles passing through the first channel are no longer beneath the chamber outlet and thereby allowing the articles in the second channel to pass through the chamber outlet.